LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
tat, iqrongMxu-- 1 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 



LITTLE MANUAL 



OF 



NOVICES; 



BY THE 



AUTHOR OF, GOLDEN SANDS. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE FIFTH 
EDITION, AND REVISED BY A MEMBER OF 



THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 



New York : 
D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 31 Barclay Street. 

Montreal: 275 Notre Dame Street. 
18S0. 

9r 






Copyright, 

ELLA J. McMAHON. 

1879. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter to the Novices 5 

CHAP. I. —Importance of the novitiate, ii 

1. During the Novitiate we study our voca- 

tion more calmly and with more light, 
and we decide it with more security. . . 12 

2. During the Novitiate we test our courage, 

our disposition and our acquirements.. 15 

3. During the Novitiate, you study whether 

the community you have chosen suits 
you, and the community on their part 
learn whether the novice is a suitable 
subject for the order 18 

4. During the Novitiate, the soul makes 

abundant provision for its welfare and 
that of others 19 

5. During the Novitiate the novice is formed 

for the spiritual life 22 

CHAP. II.— The Spirit of the Novitiate .. . 25 

A spirit of faith 28 

A spirit of trust and confidence 29 

A spirit of candor and simplicity 33 

A spirit of order and regularity . . 34 

A spirit of peace and charity 35 . 

A spirit of courage. 37 

A joyful spirit. . . 38 

A spirit of sacrifice and self-denial. 42 



iv CONTENTS. 

CHAP. III. — Faults to be corrected in the 

Novitiate 47 

Faults of the mind 50 

Faults of the heart 55 

Corporal faults 60 

CHAP. IV. — Spirits to be avoided in the 

Novitiate 64 

A fretful spirit 64 

A worldly spirit 65 

A spirit of singularity „. 67 

A spirit of ridicule 68 

A spirit of criticism 7° 

Party spirit 72 

CHAP. V.— Virtues to be acquired and prac- 
tised in the Novitiate 74 

Obedience *]6 

Motives for obedience 77 

Practices of obedience , 79 

Simple reflections on obedience 83 

Fraternal charity 85 

Motives for the practice of fraternal 

charity 87 

Practices of fraternal charity 88 

Humility 93 

Motives for practising humility 94 

Practices of humility. 96 

Mortification 100 

Motives for practising mortification .... 102 

Practices of mortification 103 



CONTENTS. v 

Notes on mortification ioS 

Simplicity 113 

Motives for acquiring simplicity 114 

Practices of simplicity 116 

Simplicity of mind 116 

Simplicity of heart 116 

Simplicity of disposition 117 

Simplicity of action 117 

Simplicity of exterior 1 18 

Simplicity in piety 118 

Sketch of life at St. Sulpice 119 

CHAP. VI. Maxims of the Novitiate 127 

Litany of Humility 132 

CHAP. VII. — Labors of the Novitiate 150 

Summary of a treatise on the religious 

state, 154 

Nature of the religious state 154 

Conditions requisite for entering religion. 162 
The ordinary marks of a divine vocation. 166 
The obligation of following one's vocation 1 70 

Taking the veil 1 71 

The Novitiate 173 

The obligations of Novices 175 

" " "Profession 178 

Vows:.... 181 

Vow and virtue of poverty 184 

Vow and virtue of chastity 193 

Vow and virtue of obedience. 197 

The cloister 200 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAP. VII.— {Continued.) 

Summary of a treatise on the Interior Life. 203 

Nature of the interior life 203 

Excellence of the interior life 205 

Acts of the interior life 208 

Means of attaining the interior life 209 

Obstacles to the interior life 212 

The pious novice's day. . . . 215 

CHAP. VIII.— The trials of the Novitiate. 221 

Source of trials 222 

Trials directly from God 223 

Trials on the part of the mistress 225 

Trials coming from our companions 229 

Manner of bearing trials : 23 1 

With generosity 232 

With constancy 237 

CHAP. IX. — Devotions in the Novitiate... 240 

General rules 240 

Particular rules 247 

Devotion to the Most Blessed Trinity... 247 

Devotion to divine Providence 249 

Devotion to the Holy Eucharist 250 

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. . 253 

Devotion to the Mysteries of Jesus 253 

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin 255 

Devotion to St. Joseph 258 

Devotion to the Angel Guardian 259 

Devotion to the Souls in Purgatory 261 



CONTENTS. vii 

CHAP. X. — Aids of the Novitiate 265 

Meditation 266 

Particular Examen 275 

Monthly Retreat 279 

Examen to be made during the monthly 

retreat 280 

Act of renovation 291 

Particular rule 293 

Exterior aids 296 

The Rule 296 

Prayer in common 303 

Direction , 305 

Chapter 309 

Spiritual reading. 311 

Sister Simplicienne. 313 

CHAP. XI. — Temptations which the devil 

SUGGESTS DURING THE NOVITIATE. 317 

CHAP. XII. — Last days of the Novitiate... 327 

General trials of the religious life 328 

Consolations of the religious life 338 

The religious lives more purely and 

meritoriously 340 

falls more rarely 341 

rises again more quickly 342 

walks more cautiously 343 

—receives more abundant graces. 343 

shortens her Purgatory 346 

—gains a more beautiful crown 347 



a iii CONTENTS. 

Prayer of the novice preparing for pro- 
fession 348 

The symbol or creed of the religious .... 349 

APPENDIX. 

Considerations on the Religious State and the 

Secular State, to help the soul in its choice* 353 

The Convent and the World 362 

A departure for the cloister 365 

A few pages from the life of Madam Louise 
of France, Carmelite religious, and daughter of 

Louis XV 370 

Prayer of Madam Louise to obtain the grace to 

enter the Carmelite convent 371 

Happiness of Madam Louise at Carmel 374 

The happiness which the Prince Schouvaloff 

experienced in the religious life 377 

The novice unfaithful to her vocation 380 



PREFACE. 



We humbly beseech Almighty God to bless 
this little book and to grant that, having be- 
come the Manual of Novices, it may serve to 
enlighten them in their vocation, and prepare 
them for the very important grace of a religious 
calling. 

We know well that God does not need our 
labor to perfect souls ; therefore, we do not 
so much offer it to Him, as beg that He will 
deign to accept it, and let it serve His designs. 

We are further aware that the Novitiates of 
the different religious houses possess, under the 
title of the Novices' Directory, wise rules which, 
up to the present moment, have helped to 
form holy religious, who, filled with the spirit 
of their respective founders, will always serve 
as guides and aids to the souls who go to 
seek shelter in these holy asylums. 

Therefore, our idea is less to replace these 
books, written with so much learning, prudence 



2 Preface. 

and piety, than to prepare the novice to com- 
prehend, appreciate, and love them. 

It is not all at once that a young girl from 
the midst of the world, even though she may 
have led a devout life, assumes the spirit of a 
religious community, and forms herself to that 
supernatural life which is that of every person 
consecrated to God. The spirit of every re- 
ligious house is a special atmosphere, which 
gradually penetrates and permeates the souls 
and characters under its influence. Its effect 
on souls is stronger, in proportion as they are 
better prepared to receive it. 

Our little book has no other aim than to 
prepare souls for the influence of this religious 
atmosphere by teaching them what they should 
retrench, what they should add; the exercises 
they should practise; the thoughts with which 
they should slowly nourish their souls. Its 
counsels are simple, within the reach of every 
understanding, and inculcate nothing which 
the youngest Novice cannot comprehend and 
strive to practise. Later, God willing, we 
will aspire somewhat higher, and endeavor to 
address ourselves to the Professed. Let the 



Preface. 3 

Novices pray for us ; and the Mistresses, if 
they find in our book any assistance for the 
instructions they have to give, will they not 
ask Gcd to grant that we may sanctify our- 
selves whilst laboring for the sanctification of 
others ? 

S. 

December 2$tk, Birthaay of the Infant Jesus, the 
special Protector and Model of A T ovitiates. 



TO THE NOVICES. 



Devout Novice, faithful to the teachings of 
those who direct you in the silence of medita- 
tion, and in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed 
Sacrament, ask yourself, Why have 1 come 
here? 

Listen to the sweet and gentle voice of your 
angel Guardian, who whispers to your heart: 

'* You have come here to be a religious; that 
is, to unite yourself to God by an eternal bond; 
and every action of your Novitiate forms a link 
in the mysterious triple-chain which will soon 
unite you to Jesus Christ forever." And at this 
very simple and truthful reply, your heart will 
exclaim with emotion : 

1 ' Oh ! how I long for the day which will 
unite me to Jesus Christ ! 

Oh ! how I long to say, I can never, never 
more, be separated from Jesus Christ! 

Ah ! to be united to Him I do not regret 
the sacrifices I have made ; and, notwithstand- 



6 To the Novices. 

ing their painful memories, I am still ready to 
renew them. 

When I am Thine, my God, wilt thou not 
take to me the place of father, mother, brothers, 
sisters ? 

And one day will we not all, my loved ones 
and I, be reunited with Thee in heaven to love 
Thee for all eternity ? 

And, perhaps, from the lips of loved ones 
whom I have left for Jesus Christ, I may hear 
these words: 

My child, it is to thee, to thy prayers, that we 
owe our salvation ! 

"Yes, yes; I desire to be a religious I" 



II. 



And the voice continues: 

"You are here, that you may attain 

your salvation more easily, and more securely; 
in a state where every thing speaks of God, 
where every thing leads to God, where every 
thing is done in the name of God. 

Look ! you are already rid of the responsi- 
bility of your actions. In the world you would 



To the Novices. 7 

have yielded to the influence of your interest, 
of your humor, of your position. 

You could not have distinctly heard God's 
voice asking a sacrifice, suggesting self-denial, 
indicating a duty. 

Once you are a religious, your Superior 
will tell you, Do that; and, in your obedience, 
you are sure of doing the will of God. 

She will tell you, Go there; and you are sure 
that God desires you should go. 

Later, you will be delivered from the yoke of 
your natural inconstancy. 

The links which then bind you to Jesus 
Christ will fix your instability; you can no 
longer do anything but what will virtually tend 
to your salvation. 

You will be tempted to acts opposed to the 
law of God, and you will answer: I am no longer 
my own mistress. 

Nature will urge you to throw off the yoke, 
and you will answer: I can no longer do it. 

And in spite of yourself, so to speak, you 
will follow to heaven Jesus Christ, your Mas- 
ter, to whom you will have bound yourself. 



8 To the Novices. 

III. 

"You have further come here to serve as an 
instrument of God's glory and mercy. " 

Doubtless God does not need to ask the 
permission of creatures to use them for His 
designs; yet, when He wishes a particular crea- 
ture to serve as one of His direct instruments, 
He asks her, if she is willing; and this insignifi- 
cant being can say to her Creator, / am un- 
willing to chain my liberty to Thy good pleasure. 

But you, you have not feared to break your 
heart to reply to this appeal. You have given 
your consent ; and, behold, you are now, so to 
speak, a pupil in the school of God. 

In effect, the Novitiate is a school : 2l school 
where God forms the souls who have given 
themselves to Him: 

Some that they may win other souls to Him 
by the preaching of the gospel; 

Others, that they may glorify Him by their 
prayers; 

Others, that they may expiate sin by their 
voluntary suffering; 

Others, that they may plant His love in the 
hearts of little children. 



To the Novices. 9 

Others, that they may care for the bodies of 
the sick, prevent the blasphemies which they 
utter in their pain, and gently lead them to 
heaven. 

IV. 

H Behold why you have shut yourself within 
the walls of this Novitiate, under the direction 
of experienced mistresses. 

" Receive from their hands this little book, 
which will complete their teachings; read it 
with attention; it will suggest means of profiting 
by this school of God, and of making yourself 
worthy of what He asks of you. 

" Be simple, that you may comprehend this 
reading; 

"Be humble, that you may receive it; 

" Be docile, that you may love it; 

" Be generous, finally, that you may practise 
the counsels which you will receive. " 



The following are the titles of the chapters 
treated in the book: 

1st . The importance of the Novitiate, 



io To the Novices. 

2d. The spirit of the Novitiate, 

3d. The faults to be corrected in the Novitiate. 

4th. The different spirits to he avoided in the 
Novitiate. 

fth. The virtues to be acquired and practised in 
the JSovitiate. 

6th. Maxims of the Novitiate. 

fth. The labor of the Novitiate. 

8th. The trials of the Aovitiate. 

gth. The devotions of the Novitiate. 

loth. The aids of the Novitiate. 

nth. The temptations which the devil suggests 
during the Novitiate. 

12th. Last days of the Novitiate. 



LITTLE MANUAL 

OF 

NOVICES. 



» • < 



CHAPTER I. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE NOVITIATE. 

The Novitiate is a time during which one who 
believes herself called to a religious life puts to the 
test, in the community which she has chosen, her 
strength, her disposition, her general fitness for 
the life ; while the community also study and prove 
her character to discover whether she is suited to 
the order. 

It is sufficient to read this definition atten- 
tively to comprehend the great importance of 
the Novitiate. 



1 2 Importance of the Novitiate. 

I. 

During the Novitiate we study our vocation 
more caimly and with more tight, and we decide 
it with more security. 

Souls, even the most upright, frequently form 
in the world erroneous, or at least very incom- 
plete ideas of a religious life; and the greater part 
are led to embrace it by an attraction which is 
rather the effect of imagination than of grace. 

They know in a general way that it is a life 
of self-denial; but they have never considered 
the details of this abnegation. They have seen 
the brilliant side of the sacrifice, — and certainly 
there is something heroic and beautiful in that 
adieu to the world, and everything alluring, 
captivating, and flattering, at an age when life 
is so full of pleasure, — and, without seeking or 
weighing what follows, they are seized with envy 
of a soul which has proved itself so generous. 

They know that it is necessary to do violence 
to the heart in leaving one's family; that 
habits of a lifetime must be abandoned; home- 
comfort sacrificed, which, though composed of 
perhaps a thousand insignificant nothings, made 
family life very sweet. 



Importance of the Novitiate. 13 

But they have read of the happiness of a 
religious life: of the charms of community life; 
of the sweetness of the yoke of Jesus ; of 
the peace which is born of retirement from the 
world; of the rewards promised and assured 
to those who have left all for Christ; they 
have read pages so touching, so devout, so 
convincing, that they tell themselves: Once 
there I shall be happy ! 

Oh ! yes, you will be happy in a religious 
life — yes, your heart and your soul will there 
find unspeakable joy and peace — but on con- 
dition that you be seriously called to it, and that 
you faithfully correspond to your vocation. 

Now the Novitiate has been established, that 
you may judge of the sincerity of your vocation, 
not with the impressions produced upon you 
by a touching ceremony like the taking of the 
veil, or by the reading of books written by 
ardent souls, but with the calmness which 
reason enlightened by faith begets. 

Moreover, you alone do not judge ; your 
superiors who you see at work, who watch you 
closely, and who, like you, are equally and 
strongly interested to prevent the admission 



14 Importance of the Novitiate. 

into their community of a wavering and doubt- 
ful vocation, will themselves judge you with 
the wisdom which grace and experience give 
them. 

And if at the end of the year their voice, in 
accord with the voice of your conscience, tells 
you, Take your vows, you can then take them 
without fear. 



II, 



During the Novitiate a trial is made of strength, 
of character, of acquirements. 

Being a religious is not only faithfully ful 
filling, like a true Christian, the engagements 
you made in baptism, when, by the lips of an- 
other, you promised to renounce the devil and all 
his works and pomps, and give yourself to fesus 
Christ forever ; it is the binding yourself still more 
closely to fesus Christ, and following Him every- 
where, to heaven, doubtless, where the ties 
which bind you to Him, if they remain un- 
broken, will necessarily lead you; but first walk 
with Him along the road of Calvary which he 



Importance of the Novitiate. 1 5 

has dyed with His blood, and like Him let 
yourself be crucified if necessary. 

With our ideas of independence, and our 
self-indulgent habits, is not this an alarming 
thought ? 

Therefore what priest is not a little anxious, 
and does not ask himself, Will she have sufficient 
strength? when a young girl comes to him and 
tells him, / would like to be a religious. 

With the majority, becoming a religious is 
doubtless gaining heaven ; but frequently it is 
also leaving an undecided, anxious path to em- 
brace the calm monotony of a rule sweetened 
by the love of God, and the affection of a family 
of sisters. 

There is all this in the religious life : there 
is even still more . . . but that is not all. 

Do you know the bridal gifts Jesus bestows 
on her whom he espouses? — His Cross , — the 
nails, — His crown of thorns. 

Do you know what He whispers to the heart 
of her who vows fidelity to Him ? — If you love 
me, take up my cross and follow me. 

Do you know the portrait He leaves with 



16 Importance of the Novitiate, 

her, that in days of absence she may not forget 
her Spouse ? — A crucifix. 

Then it is to bear this cross, and this crown 
of thorns, — it is to walk all your life on this 
road of Calvary, that we are going to train 
you during your Novitiate. We are going to 
teach you how to renounce your inclinations 
and habits in exchange for those of Jesus. 

We do not wish that, once engaged as a 
follower of Jesus Christ, you should find the life 
too hard, and be able to say: If I had known!. . 

Do not conclude, however, that there are. only 
painful days in the Novitiate. 

Oh ! no, no, Sister ; neither consolation nor 
joy nor peace is lacking in these blessed asy- 
lums, which have been so fitly called paradise 
upon earth\ for here, as in heaven, is felt, in an 
ineffable manner, the goodness of Him who has 
said : Come to me; my yoke is sweet, and my burden 
light. 

No; happiness is not lacking in those 
houses of God, where the whole year is but 
one joyous festival; where the laughter of all 
rings out to the walls which separate them 
from the world. Thus wrote, from her Car- 



Importance of the Novitiate. \J 

melite convent, Mme. Louise of France, who 
nevertheless had enjoyed here below all of 
which the imagination could dream. 

And why should not religious have hap- 
piness, joy, and consolation? They live with 
God, they obey God, they repose near God, 
they are useful to God, their life is slowly con- 
sumed in the service of God, and, above all, 
they feel that God loves them ! 

"Ah ! " cried a Trappist nun ! " though it 
were necessary to walk over burning coals to 
become the Spouse of Christ, could one hesi- 
tate?" 

III. 

During the Novitiate you study whether the 
community you have chosen suits you; and the 
community, on their part, learn whether the novice 
is a suitable subject for the congregation. 

God has respected your liberty by not 
asking you to engage yourself without reflec- 
tion. The Church in His name, to leave you 
a choice, has multiplied religious communi- 
ties, giving to each one a particular character; 
and she desires that, during one year, the 



18 Importance of the Novitiate. 

house in which you have chosen to make 
your trial of a religious life, should make itself 
manifest to you with the spirit which directs 
it, the virtues which it asks, the practices 
which it imposes, the labor which it exacts; 
. . . and when you have seen and know all, 
it tells you: You are free to remain with us, ot- 
to go elsewhere to make a new trial, or to return to 
the world. 

But this freedom which is granted you, the 
community should also be privileged to exercise 
in accepting you or refusing you. Your indif- 
ferent health, your disposition, your natural 
faults, which may not prevent you from winning 
heaven, but would disturb the general harmony 
of the community, your acquirements wholly 
opposed to those which the house requires, 
may all be reasons for not keeping you. 

Should you separate, there is no reason for 
anxiety on either side. There has been no 
injustice; the charity which might have become 
more intimate remains as it was before. You 
will not cease by your prayers mutually to aid 
each other on the way to heaven, only you will 
not go by the same road. 



Importance of the Novitiate. 19 



IV. 



During the Novitiate the soul makes abundant 
provision for its own good, and for the good of 
others. 

For much is given to it: There is the con- 
tinual example of souls rivaling each other in 
their efforts after perfection; 

Defects assiduously and constantly corrected with 
gentleness and experience; 

Frequent exhortations, the aim of which is to 
strengthen, encourage, and stimulate you to 
the practice of virtue; 

Obligatory studies, clearly taught and long 
continued; assiduous vigilance, which never 
wearies for a moment, which sees all, which 
divines all, which seeks to know all, but with 
the sole aim of perfecting and sanctifying you. 

Devotion which meets every trial, which is 
always ready to solve difficulties, to listen to 
troubles, to enlighten doubts . . . and which 
meets you every day with renewed and untir- 
ing patience. 



20 Importance of the Novitiate. 

Though much is given in the Novitiate, 
very little is asked. 

But two things, first of all, are required of 
the novice: docility of character, in allowing her- 
self to be moulded ; a strong will, that she may 
not be discouraged. 

And what magnificent results, what unlook- 
ed for miracles, follow a good Novitiate ! 

The Novitiate is the furnace whence the soul 
comes forth, transformed and purified from all 
the grosser faults which marred its beauty. 

The Novitiate is the mould whence the soul 
comes forth moulded to a new life, the life of 
Jesus Christ. 

The Novitiate is the arsenal whence the 
soul draws the rudiments of the knowledge 
with which she is about to begin the work of 
God; where particularly she has strengthened 
herself to receive and preserve the graces neces- 
sary for the employment which will be given 
to her. 

1 'The Novitiate is that regenerating work of 
the mind which, as much as possible, delivers 
to divine grace the entire possession of the fac- 
ulties, the forces, the habits of the. soul. 



Importance of the Novitiate. 2 1 

"It is a sort of creation, a powerful trans- 
formation, which must free the soul from 
innumerable obstacles with which it was em- 
barrassed by the interests, the ideas, the 
affections, and the passions of nature. 

" It is the fire where the iron is softened, to 
take a new shape; it is the file which smoothes 
the rough edges, removes the rust, and pre- 
pares the instrument to be useful in the hands 
of the workman. 

"Then is impressed on the soul a direction 
which replaces in it all purely human direction 
by the sole ambition for the Divine glory, and 
the eternal salvation of all." P. de Ravignan. 

St. Ignatius is so convinced that during the 
Novitiate such a great change is effected in the 
soul, and that the novices leave it with so great 
a spirit of fervor, mortification, love of retreat, 
and such great ardor for meditation and spirit- 
ual exercises, that he believes himself obliged 
to warn those who still continue their studies, 
to moderate their fervor, and to practise fewer 
austerities than usual. — Happy novices to 
whom such recommendations are necessary ! 



22 Importance of the Novitiate. 



During the Novitiate the fidetity of the novice is 
so important, that, morally speaking, all her re- 
ligious life depends upon the fervor or slothfulness 
of her Novitiate. 

The experience of all religious, as well as the 
teachings of masters in the spiritual life, are 
unanimous in justifying this assertion. 

Alas ! says a pious author, it is not a rare 
thing to see a fervent novice fall from her first 
fervor; but, among tepid novices, I do not know 
that it is possible to count on one out of a 
hundred becoming sincerely converted after her 
profession, and later proving herself an exem- 
plary religious. 

A Novitiate badly spent is a misfortune which 
is repaired with difficulty. 

Hear Rodriguez's words to a Novice: 
"Now that you are in your Novitiate you 
have much time to apply yourself to your 
spiritual advancement, and many means which 
can contribute towards it; for it is the sole 
object of your superiors, and they make it their 
principal duty. 



Importance of the Novitiate. 23 

" You have before your eyes the example of 
other novices whose only thought is to sanctify 
themselves; and example usually makes such 
an impression upon us, that living continually 
with persons devoted to and making consider- 
able progress in the practice of virtue, it is 
difficult, however indolent we may be, not to 
feel roused to abandon our slothfulness. 

"You possess, moreover, a heart disengaged 
from all the opinions of the world, and which 
even seems inclined to the practice of virtue; 
you encounter no object which curns you from 
it: on the contrary, you have a thousand which 
lead you toward it. 

"If then, now that you are here solely to be- 
come virtuous, and with nothing to occupy 
you but the acquiring of virtue, you make no 
progress, you lay up no provision of piety for 
the future, how will it be when your heart is 
filled with a thousand distracting cares ? 

" If now, with so much leisure, so much 
facility, and so much assistance, you do not 
make your meditation or your examen well; 
if you do not devote yourself to performing 
your spiritual exercises with fidelity and piety, 



24 Importance of the Novitiate. 

how will it be when you will be charged with 
an office filled with exterior duties ? " 

If with so many conferences and so many 
exhortations, so many examples and so many 
solicitations, you make no profit; how will it 
be when you are left almost to yourself, and 
you encounter unexpected impediments and 
obstacles of every sort ? 

Oh ! then profit well of this precious time of 
the Novitiate; remember that you have probably 
no other time so favorable for laboring at your 
advancement in virtue, and amassing spiritual 
treasures. Lose not one day, one hour. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE NOVITIATE. 

The Spirit of the Novitiate is the atmosphere, 
so to speak, which the soul breathes there. 

The novices are not conscious of this special 
atmosphere which surrounds — nourishes their 
souls, and gradually transforms them; but if 
a stranger spend but one day in their midst, 
she experiences an atmosphere of peace which 
astonishes her. She finds herself in the midst 
of a family which delights her, and she in- 
voluntarily exclaims: How peaceful it is here! 

Yes, all is peace in the Novitiate-, and the young 
girl who brings to this blessed house a purified 
heart, an upright soul, a strong will to belong 
to God, experiences a gradual transformation 
throughout her whole being. 

It is as if a new nature was given her; her 
bearing, her thoughts, her language, her man- 
ner, her ideas, even her countenance, have 
something heavenly about them which charms 
the beholder. 



26 The Spirit of the Novitiate. 

The Novitiate in religious life is like child- 
hood in home life. 

The young girl in the Novitiate, like the 
child in the family, has: 

A little pain, and much joy; 

A little labor, and many rewards; 

A little self-denial, and much affection. 

Oh, if one could long remain child and novice ! 

The spirit of the Novitiate is called in gen- 
eral the spirit of God; for God rules there as 
Master, and is so recognized, and all that is 
done there is approved by Him, willed by 
Him, commanded by Him. 

It is particularly within that this spirit oper- 
ates; within that is effected the transformation 
which the Church expects in young souls whom 
she submits to the test of a Novitiate. 

" If," says the Imitation, n we place our prog- 
ress in religion in these outward observances 
only, our devotion will quickly be at an end. 
A good religious ought to be much more in 
his interior than he exteriorly appears ; because 
he who beholds us is God, of whom we ought 
exceedingly to stand in awe, wherever we are, 
and like angels walk pure in his sight." 



The Spirit of the Novitiate. 27 

A good novice is not one who never fails in 
any of the observances of the Novitiate: who is 
prompt in rising in the morning; who is the 
first in the choir ; who punctually acquits her- 
self of her charge ; who never rebels against a 
command ; who is reserved in her words ; who 
willingly lends herself to the necessities of 
others . . . 

Doubtless all these things are necessary in a 
good novice, but they must be practised with 
the intention of pleasing God, of obeying God, 
of glorifying God, Oh ! if the spirit of God 
does not animate a novice who is almost forced 
to be punctual, silent, modest, — for she is al- 
ways observed, and all about her are punctual 
silent and modest ... it is much to be 
feared that she acts through temperament, 
habit, or even vanity and hypocrisy. 

It is important then, that from the beginning 
she should allow herself to be guided, and 
thoroughly penetrated, by the spirit which 
forms, as we have said, the atmosphere of the 
Novitiate. 

Now this spirit is : 



28 The Spirit of the Novitiate. 



A SPIRIT OF FAITH. 

A spirit of Faith causes you to regard the 
Novitiate as the house of God, a house in 
which God is sovereign Master. 

The rule is the expression, not of such a 
person's will, but of the will of God. 

The creatures who surround us are, each 
according to her position, character, intelli- 
gence — even her faults, the material means by 
which God communicates Himself to us. 

A spirit of Faith causes you to behold God 
directing you by the voice of your confessor; 

God commanding you by the words of the 
rule and the voice of your superiors ; 

God trying you by the disposition of such a 
companion ; by the monotony of such an 
employment ; by the suffering of such an 
illness ; by the humiliation of such a reproach. 

A spirit of Faith makes the novice always 
modest, always reserved, always industrious ; for 
the eye of God never leaves her, and she would 
not displease God. 



The Spirit of the Novitiate. 29 

A spirit of Faith makes her also ever con- 
tented; for it causes her to behold God watching 
over her with love: taking the place of all those 
whom she has left for love of Him, counting 
her every action, her every step, her every tear, 
that He may reward them in heaven. 

II. 

A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CONFIDENCE \ 

In God, who has called the novice ; and 
accompanies her all along the route, to raise her 
when she falls, to encourage her, to strengthen 
her, to sustain her. . . 

God, by whom she feels she is loved, and 
whom she loves with all her heart, relying upon 
Him always and in all things. 

God, to whom she prays with so much hap- 
piness; to whom she appeals for pardon with so 
much filial affection, lovingly repeating the 
words, My Father. 

In the world the fatherly providence of God 
cannot be felt as it is in the convent; for in the 
convent God is every thing. Happy the novice 
who truly comprehends the words, God is every 



30 The Spirit of the Novitiate. 

thi?ig to me!* How willingly she goes to 
prayer! How happy she is to be obliged, 
several times a day, to present herself before 
God for meditation, office, a visit to the Bless- 
ed Sacrament ! 

She has been told that the convent was a 
house of prayer, and she comprehends the sweet- 
ness, the strength, the consolation of this title; 
and she goes to her mistress and her confessor 
to learn how to practise this continual prayer, 
of which she reads in pious books. 

"Be a child of prayer," said a mistress of 
novices, "and I answer for your happiness in 
the community." 

Trust and confidence in the priest to whom 
obedience has confided her soul, and who is 

* "It seems but a day," wrote Trappist nun, "since 
I made my profession, and I only count my age from 
the date of that event. Behold then what a little one 
I am ! / am only a year old! This thought pleases 
me the more, that it sends me to Our Lord with more 
confidence; for a little child a year old can only love 
its mother, and she pardons it every thing. I think 
these little fancies only stimulate our love for Him." 



The Spirit of the Novitiate. 3 1 

God made visible to it ; his words are those of 
God, his counsels are those of God. She shows 
him her soul with simplicity, and she lives 
without anxiety, sure that he will lead her to 
heaven. What matters it to her that she no 
longer hears the voice which directed her in 
the world ? Doubtless she does not forget him 
who for so long a time devoted himself to her 
soul; she remembers his counsels, she prays 
for him, but she does not regret him in the sense 
which the world attaches to this word. God 
had given her a holy priest, it is still a holy 
priest whom God gives her, and in the confes- 
sional she sees only God. 

If some words appear to her less pleasant, 
if the doctrine she hears seems more austere, 
certainly her heart will sometimes sink; but 
she understands that she is not yet sufficiently 
strong, and she calmly awaits a better initiation 
into religious life, and a better understanding 
of renouncement. 



Trust and confidence in her superior, who is 
Gods ambassador to her, who takes her 



32 The Spirit of the Novitiate. 

mother's place, with whom she is at once on 
terms of intimacy, and to whom she opens her 
heart with the abandonment of a child. 

It is by means of this intimacy of two hearts, 
or rather two souls, that the good God softens 
the anguish of the separation which has just 
been made. 

Her superior ! Her mistress ! the novice does 
not need to know them to love them ; by a 
special grace on the part of one and the other, 
a confidence exists between their souls; from the 
first they comprehend each other; the novice 
pours out her soul, and thus the sweet union 
of a family is formed . . . and if the novice 
always continue to love God as she does on 
entering, it will form her happiness during all 
her religious life. 

Trust and confidence in her companions to 
whom she is happy to give the title of Sister, 
and who recall to her the sweet joys of her 
home fireside. 

And why should not their hearts be united 
which have experienced the same sorrow, which 



The Spirit of the Novitiate. 33 

have the same aim, and are pursuing the same 
path ? . . . They love one another with sim- 
plicity, they tell one another of their affection, 
and prove it in a thousand ways. 

There is no formal etiquette among them, 
but a pleasant amiable informality, a natural 
easy complacency, a cordial frankness which 
at once converts acquaintances of yesterday 
into old friends. 

Doubtless there is a certain reserve to be 
observed by the novices in their intercourse 
with their companions, but this prudent reserve 
will not in any way alter the cordiality of their 
affection. 

III. 

A SPIRIT OF CANDOR AND SIMPLICITY. 

This spirit causes the novice to act without 
any ulterior thought. Without self-love or 
vanity she accomplishes the work which is 
commanded her as perfectly as she can, simply 
because she has been told to do it. She acts 
in such a manner on such an occasion, simply 
because it is the will of her Superior. She 



34 The Spirit of the Novitiate. 

tells her acquirements without any pretension, 
and acknowledges her ignorance, whatever it 
may be, without embarrassment. She makes 
known her joys, her trials, her anxieties, her 
repugnances, her defects, such as she sees them 
and knows them, simply because she has been 
asked to do so. If she feels any indisposition 
she tells it with simplicity, and accepts the 
the remedies which are given to her. If she 
is attacked by some disorder she tells it also. 
And if the thought comes to her that it may 
be an obstacle to her reception, the spirit of 
faith within her whispers : '* Would you desire 
to be a religious against the will of God ? 
You would not. Then if God, who has sent 
you this infirmity, makes it an obstacle to your 
vocation, why should you struggle against 
Him ? And if God wishes you to be a re- 
ligious, be at rest ; He will know well how to 
cure you or cause you to be accepted, in spite 
of everything." 

IV. 

A SPIRIT OF ORDER AND REGULARITY. 

With this spirit the novice never permits 



The Spirit of the Novitiate. 35 

herself to be overwhelmed by the multiplicity 
of duties to be performed. She does but one 
thing at a time, and always finishes it before 
undertaking another : she begins the day by 
putting each thing in its place ; she is punc- 
tual as to time, place, manner, and all with- 
out inconvenience, constraint or scruple ; she 
leaves the task she has begun, when obedience 
commands another, then calmly resumes the 
incompleted task and finishes it without any 
impatience. All work has the same value in 
her eyes from the moment obedience exacts 
it : praying, sweeping, mending. . . what 
matters it to her? To remain before the 
Blessed Sacrament, or with one of the sick, or 
alone in her cell, or in the midst of her sisters 
at recreation . . . she finds every task good, for 
she beholds the will of God in every thing. 

V. 

A SPIRIT OF PEACE AND CHARITY 

Which causes the novice to bear patiently 
what does not please her, to quickly forget 



36 The Spirit of the Novitiate, 

any wrong, to count as nothing the contra- 
dictions inevitable in a numerous community, 
to make it a study to avoid wounding any 
one, to avoid complaining, to turn a deaf ear 
to detraction, and to use all her tact to recon- 
cile those who are at variance. 

A bickering caviling disposition, which 
takes umbrage at every thing, is not fitted for 
community life. 

A spirit of charity, by which she ceases to 
belong to herself, and is in a measure at the 
disposition of every body; a spirit of charity 
which makes her devoted : ever ready to be of 
service to help every body, to replace a tired 
companion, to perform a task which others 
have abandoned ; a spirit of charity which 
makes her generous ; she never pauses to ask, 
Is this my work? but promptly and un- 
ceasingly lends herself to the assistance of 
others supported in her fatigue by this thought, 
all that I do for others for God's sake, God will 
do for me, 

This spirit is essentially the spirit of the 
religious life. 

"Examine particularly the amount of charity 



The Spirit of the Novitiate. 37 

which a soul contains," says a Saint, " and if it 
be capable of great love for God and its neigh- 
bor, make it a religious." 

VI. 

A SPIRIT OF COURAGE 

Which suffers, is silent, and waits. 

The novice knows that in the holiest relig- 
ious houses she will meet with trials, and that 
trials have the special mission of sanctification; 
therefore, she calmly looks forward to them, and 
receives them also as a means of expiating her 
faults; she knows that their mission is to mould 
her to a religious life; therefore, she awaits them 
with courage and almost impatience ,for she is 
anxious to see her failings disappear. 

Trials perform the office of the pruning-knife, 
by lopping off the useless branches in her na- 
ture which impede her spiritual growth; like 
a plane they smooth all the rough angles of 
her character. 

She speaks of her interior trials to God, her 
confessor, her superior, , . no other person 
even suspects them. 



38 The Spirit of the Novitiate. 

As to exterior trials coming from those 
about her, she knows she does not. live with 
angels, and that she herself has the same defects; 
and that, according as she becomes more holy, 
she will be less sensitive to the failings of 
others ; she dwells upon them as little as pos- 
sible, and the annoyance she cannot help 
feeling she bears calmly. 

VII. 

A JOYFUL SPIRIT 

Which makes the novice contented with 
God and all that He sends ; which gives her 
an habitually cheerful countenance; which 
animates the recreations, makes her energetic 
in her tasks, finds the bright side of everything, 
and, finally, without being either importunate, 
lax or frivolous, creates an atmosphere of hap- 
piness and gaiety about her. 

St. Francis de Sales used to say, a Saint sad 
is very often a sad Saint. With his usual 
kindliness, he refrained from saying it in public 
through fear of wounding some dispositions; 
but let it be the novice's motto, and these more 



The Spirit of the Novitiate. 39 

practical words, her rule: Being unable to give 
much to others I will seek every possible occasion 
to afford them a little pleasure. 

The joyous family reunions of former days 
have ceased, and the home fire-side is deserted: 
that beloved fireside where the children and 
little ones gathered around the grand-parent, 
listening to his merry tales while the house 
rang with their noisy laughter; * therefore it 
is only in religious communities that we find 

* Permit us to insist on this joyful spirit which 
should pervade the entire Novitiate. Is it not the 
mark of an innocent, upright, trustful soul filled with 
peace and charity ? 

If we could tell you all we know of the recreations 
of some novitiates, what sprightly, charming things 
we might relate ! We will content ourselves with 
reproducing a page from the life of Mother Mary 
Ephraim, a religious of St. Thomas of Villanova, many 
years mistress of novices: — 

" Mother Mary Ephraim not only saw her novices 
during the hours of the Novitiate, she also kept them 
with her during the daily evening recreation, and 
rarely deprived herself of this sweet pleasure, as she 
termed it. This good mother loved to see herself 
surrounded by her numerous daughters; she had a 
smile, a kind word, a delicate attention, for all without 



40 The Spirit of the Novitiate. 

again that happy mirth, the merry games, the in- 
nocent tales which refresh the soul and recreate 
the stern and over- tired mind, even as formerly 

distinction. Therefore the moment she appeared in 
their midst every face brightened, the liveliest joy was 
visible in every countenance, and cries of Mother! 
It is Mother! Here is Mother! Good morning, Mother! 
resounded on every side. 

"In summer the joyous procession of white and 
black veils (novices and postulants) hastened to sur- 
round the mother. We delighted to walk in the 
country. We directed our steps from preference, first 
to the La Salette path, and when we reached the 
charming little shrine which most picturesquely termi- 
nates it, all spontaneously saluted with a pious hymn 
the venerated statue of Mary grouped with the two 
shepherds ; then,kneeling, we recited a Hail Mary; and 
when each in turn had greeted the hand of Mary with 
a kiss, the merry flock proceeded toward the pines, 
and sometimes resorted to the grove, the frank bur'sts 
of joyous laughter, repeated by the evening echo, told 
from afar the joy of these young hearts. 

"Mother Mary Ephraim was happy in the midst of 
her daughters, a sweet smile brightened her usually 
thoughtful and serious countenance; * Amuse your- 
selves, children, ' she used to say, * yes, amuse your- 
selves; your mirth rejoices my heart and does good to 
my soul. We give pleasure to Jesus and His Mother 
when we spend the recreations as we should/ 



The Spirit of the Novitiate, 41 

a graceful, forward little partridge served to 
divert and amuse the apostle St. John. A 
community without this joyful spirit lacks 
more than half its vital force. 

"Frequently she was unable to reply to all the 
questions which were put to her ; then an amusing 
struggle for her attention ensued among them. 
'Oh ! Mother, you have not said a word to me yet,' 
cried one. — 'And I,' said another, 'have not yet had 
your "good morning," though I repeated mine so often. 
— ■ And my charade,' added a third, ' I am sure, Mother, 
you have not dreamed of guessing it . . . Mother 
Mary Ephraim usually met these reclamations with a 
merry laugh, and hastened to rectify them. ' How is 
this,' she said, smiling; 'why, I am very much behind 
in my replies; let us see, how many do I owe ? One, 
two, three," , . . and the mirth became still greater. 

"But frequently the sound of the clock arrested on 
their lips the half-uttered words which were then 
ended by the approving and silent smile of the good 
mistress. 

" During Winter these recreations also had their 
charms ; they were held in the large work-room. We 
gathered around Mother; we laughed, we chatted, we 
spoke of the good God, we sang pious canticles, we 
related anecdotes — edifying traits; the mind always 
found here pleasant relaxation, and the soul a sort of 
nourishment. 

M O good, O sweet, O holy joy ! " 



42 The Spirit of the Novitiate. 



VIII. 

A SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE AND SELF-DENIAL. 

The novice imbued with this spirit tells her- 
self firmly, from the first day of her Novitiate, I 
belong no more to myself but to God and my 
superiors who take His place; and she remits to 
them her will, her intellect, her talents, with full 
liberty to use as they think best, as simply as 
she would place in their hands a material 
object of which she wished to rid herself. 

A religious, you will be told later, is a soul 
which devotes itself wholly to the service of God, 
and offers itself as a holocaust to Him. "In 
reality, the religious state," says St. Thomas, 
"may be considered as a holocaust by which 
we offer ourselves and all that we possess to 
God. We offer Him our temporal goods by 
the vow of voluntary poverty ; we consecrate our 
bodies to Him by the vow of chastity ; we 
consecrate our souls completely to Him by 
the vow of obedience, since this involves the 
sacrifice of our own will." 



The Spirit of the Novitiate. 43 

" Do you know what it is to be a religious ? " 
says St. Francis de Sales. "It is being bound 
to God by continual mortification of ourselves 
and living for God alone. For you must not 
tell those entering religion, that when they are 
religious our Lord will conduct them to Mount 
Thabor, where they will exclaim with Peter, 
// is good for us to be here. On the contrary, 
whether they desire to make their vows or enter 
the Novitiate, tell them: 'You must go to the 
mount of Calvary, there to be continually cruci- 
fied with your Saviour; you must crucify your 
understanding ; that you may restrain your 
thoughts and never voluntarily admit any con- 
trary to the vocation you have chosen. In the 
same manner you must crucify your memory, 
never permitting it to dwell on what you have 
left in the world. In the same manner your 
own will must be crucified and bound to 
the cross of Our Saviour, that you may no 
longer follow your own inclinations but live 
in perfect submission and obedience all the 
days of your life. " 

Then from the beginning of the Novitiate it 
is necessary: 



44 The Spirit of the Novitiate. 

ist. That we be divested of our own will; 
never saying, 1 wish or 1 do not wish; but trying 
to do all that our superiors desire, and fre- 
quently asking of God the grace never to 
discuss interiorly the occasion or the wisdom 
of a command which we receive. 

2d. That we allow ourselves to be contra- 
dicted in our tastes, deportment, manner of 
walking, praying, working, speaking. 

3d. That we permit the retrenchment of all 
superfluous objects : those, for example, which 
we have brought with us from the world, and 
to which we are attached on account of their 
association. 

4th. That we accustom ourselves not to 
complain of a scolding, a humiliation, a want 
of attention, a neglect. We do not yet ask 
the novice to make sacrifices of her own accord, 
but allow others to exact them of her, 

A novice may know that she is animated by 
the spirit of the Novitiate , or, in other words, the 
spirit of God, if she perform her daily actions, 



The Spirit of the Novitiate. 45 

1st, with exactness; 

Never voluntarily omitting one, performing 
them within the time marked, at the place fixed 
for them, and in the manner prescribed. The 
novice who is exact sees and knows nothing 
but her rule. Therefore the moment the 
rule requires it, she leaves one occupation, 
she begins another ; she leaves the place where 
she is engaged, she goes to another. 

To her the sound of the bell is like the star 
which called the Magi to the manger of 
Jesus ; the voice of her mistress, like the voice 
of Jesus when he said to his apostles, Follow me. 

2d ; with fervor; 

Not of course with relish and sensible 
pleasure ; for we may be very fervent and have 
a natural distaste for what we do ; feel repug- 
nance for an employment, and experience 
dislike for a companion with whom obedience 
places us; but we must proceed firmly and 
valorously, never letting the impression we 
feel be visible ; encourage ourselves by the 
thought that we are working in the presence 



46 The Spirit of the Novitiate. 

of God, that He is Master to command such 
a labor with such a person, in such a man- 
ner, and that because we love Him we wish 
to please Him. 

3d, with perseverance; 

This is the essential point ; it is also the dif- 
ficult point. A novice who does to-day what 
she did yesterday, and must still do to-morrow, 
and continues with the same attention, the 
same care, the same perfection, is sure, later, to 
be a holy religious. ' ' She slowly endures, " say 
the Saints, * ' one of the most painful martyr- 
doms ; but, let her therefore raise her eyes to 
heaven, the martyr's crown awaits her. 



CHAPTER III. 

FAULTS TO BE CORRECTED IN THE 
NOVITIATE. 

The faults which we bring to the Novitiate, 
and which we must labor to correct, may be 
found in the mind, in the heart, in the body. 

We do not wish to speak here of those faults 
absolutely incompatible with the religious life, 
but only those which the germ of original sin 
has left in each one of us, and which earnest 
efforts, aided by grace, will destroy or sensibly 
weaken. 

Nor do we insist that the novice be faultless 
at the end of her Novitiate ; no, but that she 
shall have daily struggled against those faults 
which she has discovered. 

The following are the principal things which 
make a community refuse to receive a postu- 
lant into the Novitiate, or to allow a novice to 
make her vows if her faults have only been 
discovered during the Novitiate : — 



48 Faults to be corrected, 

ist. If these postulants or these novices 
have not the health, the talents, the acquire- 
ments needed for the institute — particularly if 
with delicate health their virtue is only medi- 
ocre. In this case they could only be a burden 
to the community. 

2d. If they are excessively melancholy, 
naturally scrupulous, always in trouble and 
disquiet, subject to weakness of the imagination, 
opinionative, controlled by their humor, and 
unwilling to do any thing but what to them 
seems good and useful: these faults are gen- 
erally incurable. Blind obedience alone will 
benefit these souls, but they do not understand 
that they must obey. 

3d. If they have a bad disposition, a violent, 
passionate spirit which can brook nothing ; an 
unquiet, meddling spirit which can not be at 
rest, and finds something to censure in every- 
thing; a jealous, distrustful spirit, which manu- 
factures to itself a thousand suspicions ; an 
intriguing, dissimulating spirit, which always 
proceeds with artifice, is frequently surprised 
hiding, and whose intentions one can never 
penetrate. 



Faults to be corrected. 49 

4th» If they are naturally slothful, sensual, 
intemperate in eating; tenacious of those thou- 
sand little attentions to the body and toilet 
which indicate a narrow mind ; if they are 
indolent, leaving the laborious work to others 
while appearing to be occupied themselves ; 
. . . sensitive to the least remark. "As to those 
women who are so tender that they cannot 
bear a correction without being troubled, or 
made ill in consequence, you must show them 
the door " says St. Francis de Sales ; " for, since 
they are ill and are unwilling that one should 
treat them, it is very evident that they make 
themselves incorrigible, and give no hope of 
being cured. As to those who are equally 
tender in mind and body, it is one of the 
greatest impediments in the religious life ; and 
everywhere great care must be taken not to 
receive those in whom this fault exists in anv 
excess, for they are unwilling to be cured, 
refusing to make use of what can give them 
health. 

These are all grave faults ; and when they 
are inherent they are sufficient to make us 
conclude, that the unfortunate young girl in 



50 Faults to be corrected. 

whom they exist, and who, up to the time of 
her entrance into the Novitiate, has not even 
dreamed of correcting them, will not be a good 
religious. 

I. 

FAULTS OF THE MIND. 

The fast fault of the mind, the one which it 
is most important to conquer, which requires 
a strong, constant will, and, above all, repeated 
acts of the contrary virtue, is pride ; which we 
believed conquered, because perhaps it has not 
shown itself for a long time, but which clings 
with diabolical tenacity to all our thoughts 
and actions. 

It appears, it disappears ; it seems dead, it 
revives. . . If we do not destroy it during the 
Novitiate, what weariness it will cause us, and 
what sins it will make us commit ! 

Pride leads us to prefer ourselves to others ; 
to believe ourselves above them ; to think 
ourselves more ingenious, more discreet ; to 
imagine ourselves more faithful, more virtu- 
ous, more fervent, more deserving, than others. 



Faults to be corrected. 51 

Pride goes so far as to insinuate to us, that 
the community is fortunate in possessing us ; 
either because of a considerable dowry which 
we bring, or because we find ourselves possessed 
of more talent, or more tact, than our com- 
panions. 

Pride makes us examine every thing, and 
gently reveals to us, that several points of the 
rule may need reform ; it gradually insinuates 
ideas of independence, fleeting at first, but 
which in time become fixed in the mind, and 
give rise to contempt for the observances — 
disdain for little things ; makes us fly from 
corrections, withdraw from the watchfulness of 
the mistresses, tire of constantly asking little per- 
missions, and leads us to make sharp, sometimes 
impertinent, replies to the least suggestion. 

A second fault which greatly impedes the 
progress of virtue is frivolity \ 

It confers a certain air of amiability, which is 
sometimes pleasing in the world where every 
thing is superficial; but in a community it is 
either a cause of scandal, or entices others 
from their duty. 

The frivolous novice is forgetful: the recom- 



52 Faults to be corrected. 

mendations she has heard, the resolutions shs 
has formed, the promises she has made, ara 
speedily forgotten. 

She is talkative; deafening everybody at 
recreation; and, at other times, never remem- 
bering that silence is a point of the rule ; she 
believes herself excused, when she naively 
says : / can not restrain myself. 

She is inattentive; incapable of making medi- 
tation, or even following a reading; mistaking 
one command for another, and disturbing the 
order of the community* 

She is inconstant; desiring frequent change of 
place, employment, companions, etc. 

These two faults are very grave ; we especially 
commend them to the vigilance of the mis- 
tresses, and the attention of the novices. 

It is because they are not incurable, that we 
do not expel from the Novitiate the postulant 
who has not yet corrected them ; but we con- 
jure her to submit blindly to all that her 
mistress will exact of her ; a proud, frivolous 
novice will not be allowed to make her vows. 

"Be well on your guard," says St. Francis 
de Sales, "against those great minds which 



Faults to be corrected, 53 

are generally vain and self-satisfied ; which in 
the world were receptacles of vanity, and enter 
religion, not to learn humility, but as if they 
came to give lessons in philosophy and 
theology, and wish to lead and govern in 
everything." 

" An inconstant mind," says Collet, " seems 
marked for rejection." 

We will further mention another fault of the 
mind; for though it is impossible completely 
to correct it, yet it may not injure the commu- 
nity if the novice in whom it exists succeeds in 
being absolutely submissive : this fault is nar- 
rowness of ideas; which will end, if the heart is 
not very good and the devotion very simple, 
by producing scruples, one of the plagues of 
communities of which we will speak in our 
Book for the Professed* 

We limit ourselves here to indicating the 
above mentioned faults ; the other faults of 

* Narrow-mindedness is a want of good sense . "When 
sense is wanting," says St. Theresa, " I do not see in 
what way a person could be useful to a community; 
but I see very clearly that she could be very injurious 
to it." 



54 Faults to be corrected. 

the mind, vivacity, slowness, etc., will be gradu- 
ally weakened under the influence of piety, 
the rule, and good example. 

"The fact that postulants are still weak or 
quick-tempered, or subject to some other sim- 
ilar fault, should not prevent their remaining 
in the Novitiate, provided they have a good will 
to amend, to be submissive, and to make use 
of the means and remedies proper for their cure; 
and though they may feel repugnance for them 
and take them with great difficulty, it proves 
nothing provided they do not weary of using 
them .... and show a firm will to be cured 
no matter what it may cost them. Such per- 
sons, after long labor, will reap great fruits in 
religion, become great servants of God, and 
acquire strong and solid virtue ; for the grace 
of God supplies for their defects, and usually 
where there is less of nature there is always 
more of grace. 



Faults to be corrected. 55 

II. 

FAULTS OF THE HEART. 

The faults of the heart are : 

1st. Indifference. There are cold natures not 
easily moved which in the world would have 
become selfish. These natures are generally 
exact, punctual, polite, but they are not very 
considerate, because they do not reflect ; they 
are not very compassionate, because they do 
not divine suffering or because they do not 
understand it. 

The piety which they will gradually acquire 
in the community, frequent meditations upon 
how God has loved them, the precepts of 
fraternal charity which they will practise, under- 
standing their importance, will make them if 
not affectionately charitable at least merito- 
riously charitable ; that is all that can be 
exacted of them. They will die without having 
loved any one, and without having been loved 
by any one ; but they will bear with them to 
heaven the consolation of never having been 
gravely wanting in their duty. 



56 Faults to be corrected. 

2d. Antipathy. There are natures which the 
least fault estranges, and which can not endure 
dispositions opposed to their own ; hence arise 
aversions, petty acts of malice, little resent- 
ments, the affectation of pointing out faults, 
impatience, cold, sharp, quick, ill-natured re- 
plies. These unhappy natures must make 
violent and constant efforts, that they may learn 
to endure, to be silent, to become kindly. 
They will succeed, however, with the assistance 
of grace, and the means which their mistress 
will point out to them, if they are faithful and 
true in making known their dispositions as 
they really exist. 

There are fewer resources in them than in 
indifferent natures, and they give much more 
trouble. 

3d. Melancholy. In a community this is a 
more serious fault than at first appears, and St. 
Theresa and St. Chantal expressly recommend 
their daughters not to admit melancholy persons 
among them. 

" Fly this defect," says St. Liguori; "it is the 
plague of devotion, and the cause of a thousand 
faulfs, It injures the soul as the gnawing 



Faults to be corrected. 57 

worm does the cloth ; it gradually makes it 
indifferent to every thing, and leaves it entirely 
abandoned to the Evil One. 

A sweet and holy affection — that of your 
mistress, frequent readings on the mercy and 
love of God, will help the novice to counteract 
all that is dangerous in this fault. 

Transitory feelings of sadness do not indicate 
a melancholy disposition. We understand 
that there are times when an aching heart feels 
the need of being alone, — painful moments 
when a smile would be unnatural. 

During the Novitiate sadness usually comes 
from that terrible malady called home-sickness. 

The author of Letters on the Religious Life 
depicts it thus : 

A young person in the world has long sighed 
for the happy moment when she can be ad- 
mitted into a religious house ; she generously 
submits to prolonged trials ; she hails with de- 
light the long-sought permission, and, bidding 
farewell to all who are dear to her, leaves the 
world protesting her joy and her happiness. 

During the first days of her Novitiate every- 
thing in fact is satisfactory and pleasant. The 



58 Faults to be corrected. 

days speed like hours, every one is agreeable, ev- 
ery thing pleases her ; but gradually the tempter 
draws near ; difficulties spring up, cheerfulness 
disappears. A pensive air replaces her former 
gaiety ; she becomes more grave, she talks less ; 
her laugh is no longer heard ; the recreations 
seem long to her ; the work wearies her, she 
loses her appetite, sleep flies from her : while the 
memory of her family pursues her everywhere. 

She likes to be alone ; in secret she permits 
her tears to flow ; she begins to pine and grow 
thin ; she regrets having come ; she fears she 
has taken a false step; she dreams of returning. 

Behold a picture of home- sickness, a dangerous 
and very common temptation at the beginning 
of the religious life. Come ! my sister, courage, 
energy, above all, confidence. Go, cast yourself 
into the arms of your mistress; say to her with 
affectionate simplicity, / am lonesome. Listen 
to her counsels, accept her caresses, and peace 
will be restored to you; and God will say to you 
in the silence of meditation: I am thy Father, 
I am thy mother, I am thy brother. . . and for 
those whom thou hast left be not troubled, I will 
console them. 



Faults to be corrected. 59 

4th. Human attachment. This fault is very 
common in the early part of the religious life. 

It is so natural to become attached to a 
mistress, a companion whose disposition and 
character are congenial to ours. There is 
something so holy and so pure in this affec- 
tion ; it affords us so much pleasure, helps us 
so much in bearing the separation from our 
family; it even gives us more fervor in prayer, 
it makes us find so many charms in the com- 
munity and seems so clearly blessed by God, 
that we are quite astonished when told that 
it is a fault. 

We regard this feeling of our heart as all 
that is most delicate in charity, and as a grace 
from God compensating us for our sacrifices. 

And we do not perceive that we isolate 
ourselves from the others, — that we^place this 
loved companion in the sanctuary of our 
hearts where God alone should dwell, — that 
during prayer we are more occupied with her 
than with God to whom we speak. 

Nor do we perceive, that in her society 
we habitually fail in holy charity: passing in 
review our mistresses and companions, either 



60 Faults to be corrected. 

for our amusement or for criticism ; that one 
cannot bear the slightest fault to be found 
with the other ; that we mutually magnify 
each other's virtues ; that we sustain and 
encourage each other in whatever lax or 
melancholy ideas we may have, sometimes 
in ideas of resistance and opposition. 

This fault persevered in will gradually 
produce one of those bad spirits of which we 
will speak later, and which must be banished 
from the Novitiate, at any price, 

III. 

FAULTS OF THE BODY. 

We do not mean those grave corporal 
defects which in some religious houses prevent 
a young girl from being admitted into the 
Novitiate, but those faults which are mani- 
fested in one's deportment, manner of dressing, 
walking, and which result from a want of 
education. 

Among these are coarse expressions, — awk- 
ward manners, — a careless or affected walk, — 



Faults to be corrected. 61 

a certain carriage of the body intended to 
attract attention,— an affected pose, though 
often inadvertent, — want of neatness, — exces- 
sive delicacy,— noisy bursts of immoderate 
mirth, — demonstrations of friendships contrary 
to good breeding and religious modesty — 
games in which there is too much familiarity. 
. . . These are things which, while they may 
not hinder one from going to heaven, will never- 
theless destroy the good order of the community 
and injure its union and fraternal charity. 

To correct these faults it is necessary : 

ist. To know them. Now, as a general rule, 
we ourselves rarely know our faults ; they must 
be pointed out to us ; and this cannot be done 
without frequently wounding our self-love. 

2d. To be docile in accepting with simplicity 
the advice which is given us, the reprimands 
we receive, and the little humiliations which 
our blunders and our faults bring upon us. 

3d. To be firm to undertake, and constant 
to continue for years, if necessary, a struggle 
which has been generously begun. 



62 Faults to be corrected. 

Corporal faults are those which we correct 
most easily, for they bring us frequent humilia- 
tion ; and humiliations are the surest and 
most rapid means of reaching perfection. 

In contrast with these faults let us resume in 
a few words the qualities which, according 
to the doctors of the Church, fit one for a 
religious life. 

Doubtless these qualities do not prove a 
vocation, but they give those who are called in 
other ways a stronger assurance that the voice 
they hear is from God. 

"An upright, cheerful, docile, gentle,; pa- 
tient spirit, with health in proportion, is emi- 
nently fitted for life in a cloister. 

"The qualities which indicate that a soul 
will be happy in religion, are: simplicity, open- 
ness of heart, gentleness of character, a compas- 
sionate heart, an upright mind capable of 
being guided by reason, and exempt from 
whims and caprices. 

" The disposition which best endures the 
trials of the cloister is a kind, tractable, coura- 



Faults to be corrected. 63 

geous disposition, more inclined to gaiety than 
sadness. " 

"It is evident," says the author of Religious 
Conferences, ' ' that it is more the postulant's dis- 
position than her virtue that must be consid- 
ered. If she is not virtuous she will become 
so in religion, provided she have a true desire 
and sincere will ; the good example she will 
witness, the reiterated instructions she will 
receive, the pious exercises at which she will 
be obliged to assist, will be to her so many 
infallible means of becoming virtuous from 
the moment she endeavors to use them 
efficaciously. 

But if she bring to the cloister an ill-natured 
disposition, incompatible with society, she will 
never change it, or at least with great difficulty. . 
St. Francis de- Sales was so convinced of this 
truth, that he recommended his religious to 
receive only good dispositions ; that is to say, 
well regulated, and very sensible dispositions. 

Piety is acquired in the cloister, but the 
cloister does not give a good disposition. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SPIRITS TO BE KEPT OUT OF THE 
NOVITIATE. 

The faults of which we have just spoken 
engender in the Novitiate, certain bad spirits, 
which cause the spirit of God to disappear; 
we must know them, in order to destroy them 
promptly. 



A SPIRIT OF POUTING. 

This spirit consists in keeping outside of the 
community, not in a material sense, but outside 
of their thoughts, their joys, their plans. 

A spirit of pouting affects silence during rec- 
reation, sadness at work, fatigue during prayer, 
dissatisfaction everywhere, with every thing. 

It is caused by jealousy at seeing that a com- 
panion is preferred to us, or that she is better or 
more intelligent ; by the vanity which is roused 



Spirits to be kept out, 65 

in us by a reprimand, a neglect, a compliment 
given to another ; by the capriciousness to be 
expected in one who heretofore has completely 
followed her own will. 

Its object is to attract attention, to be sought 
after, to be petted. 

A pouting spirit is very common the first 
months of the Novitiate, when it is too leniently 
called childishness; doubtless it is the spirit of 
a spoiled child, but there should be no spoiled 
children in the religious life. The essence of 
virtue is strength; now pouting is a mark of 
weakness and cowardice. 

We beseech the mistresses not to let this 
fault become acclimated about them; it de- 
stroys piety, charity; it is the beginning of that 
criticising spirit, and party spirit, of which we 
will speak later. 

II. 

A WORLDLY SPIRIT. 

A worldly spirit consists in preserving in the 
Novitiate the customs, the habits, the ideas, 
the views and judgments, we entertained in 
the world. 



66 Spirits to be kept out 

This spirit is recognized: 

ist. In conversation; when the novice talks 
almost continuously and unguardedly of what 
she did in the world, the persons she saw, the 
visits she received, the worldly amusements 
which have left her such sweet memories. . . 

When she eagerly seeks for news from the 
world ; grows excited about political opin- 
ions ; is always the first to hear and relate 
any thing that happens ; relates, under pre- 
text of enlivening the recreations, anecdotes 
which are inconsistent with religious reserve. 

When she reads every fragment of newspaper 
she finds, and awaits with impatient eagerness 
the religious publications, finding it almost 
impossible to do without them.* 

A worldly spirit is further recognized: 

In the whole exterior : when the novice affects 
to be more proper, and more comme il faut 

* There are Novitiates where they receive monthly 
or weekly religious publications giving news of the 
Sovereign Pontiff and religious works; — it is not for 
us to pronounce upon the fitness of these papers for 
the Novitiate, and we leave each mistress to judge for 
herself what she has to do for the greater good of all. 



of the Novitiate. 67 

than the others ; when she gives a turn a trifle 
more elegant to her coiffure or her veil, partic- 
ularly when she is called to the parlor ; when 
she walks with an affected gait, or with a 
graceful swing which seems meant to attract 
attention. This spirit which is the result of 
one's education will gradually disappear ac- 
cording as piety penetrates the soul. 

III. 

A SPIRIT OF SINGULARITY. 

A spirit of singularity doubtless does not 
consist in an unwillingness to do what the 
others do, for you understand that would be 
a grave want of obedience, but in doing one's 
works differently from the others : in a better way, 
or in longer time than the others. 

Thus a novice will remain in the chapel a 
little longer than the others, — prolong her act 
of thanksgiving, — make one communion more 
than the others, — fast more rigorously than her 
companions, or than her mistress allows her. 

She would like to go to the Novitiate or the 
chapel when the others are at recreation, — ■ 



68 Spirits to be kept out 

say her office in such a place, or at such a 
time, — observe silence during the hours when 
all the others are taking recreation, — isolate 
herself for a work which the novices do in 
common. 

She will have a melancholy air on days of 
general rejoicing, — she will be more recollected 
and absorbed on a feast-day, when the chapel is 
more brilliant, and more richly ornamented, — 
she will walk with a slower or freeer step 
than the others, — she will laugh more vehe- 
mently. ... It is most trying this spirit of 
singularity; it needs a great deal of patience 
and firmness to repress it, and if the novice 
does not yield absolute obedience, she will 
later become restless, whimsical, and be an 
annoyance to the community. 

IV. 

A SPIRIT OF RIDICULE. 

A spirit of ridicule consists in remarking 
and attracting the attention of others to all the 
little mistakes, little faults, little neglects, little 
blunders which each member of the community 



of the Novitiate. 69 

is liable to commit ; it is doubtless not done 
with the idea of ridiculing them, but to excite a 
laugh. 

This is one of the spirits which is most 
opposed to the religious life, though at first it 
seems only amusing. It destroys charity — it 
spreads with great rapidity — it deeply wounds 
the persons who are the objects of it, and some- 
times makes them leave a house where they find 
themselves constantly humiliated ; it prevents 
the work of grace in any one addicted to this 
fault, and gradually ends by making her uni- 
versally dreaded. 

St. Basil was unwilling that any one who 
had this spirit of ridicule should be kept in 
religion. 

A spirit of ridicule springs from self-love, 
and a consciousness of one's own merits which 
the devil well knows how to magnify. 

A few public humiliations and punishments, 
inflicted each time a word of ridicule escapes, 
will powerfully serve to correct this fault 
Frequent meditations before the Blessed 
Sacrament on a spirit of charity and one's 



JO Spirits to be kept out 

own miseries, will soon teach one to be silent, 
and compassionate of others' failings. 



A SPIRIT OF CRITICISM. 

A spirit of criticism is frequently only a 
spirit of ridicule which has grown upon us^ 
and which gradually carries its inquisitive 
glance even to the actions and intentions of our 
superiors. We understand all the evil of this 
spirit, and how important it is to destroy it. 

Judge and criticise ones superiors ! O alas, for 
the novice who would willingly indulge in such 
criticism, even in thought, and particularly if 
she communicates her thoughts to others ! 
Criticism sometimes simply assumes the name 
of a complaint and has an appearance of being 
just, for it always seems to us well founded — 
as if the devil ever failed to furnish a plaus- 
ible reason. 

As complaints are, in their nature, a very 
invading evil, we are about to indicate a few 
of the principal complaints to which religious 
are tempted : — 



of the Novitiate. Ji 

The most difficult and tiresome work in the 
house is always given to me. 

One would imagine I was not as good as 
the others. 

If there is a difficult and humiliating 
commission to be executed it is ahvays given 
to me. 

No attention is paid to me when I make a 
remark, and the others are always heard. 

I do not stand well with them, and yet 
what have I done ? 

The reprimands always fall upon me. 

I have asked, at least ten times, for what I 
need ; they never have time to give it to me. . . 
nevertheless, they are attentive enough to 
others. 

The fare is abominable ; they take no care 
of us. 

The superiors are like all the others, they 
like those who like them ; alas, for the poor 
sisters who are not in favor. . . etc. 



72 Spirits to be kept out 

VI. 

PARTY SPIRIT. 

This is the most terrible of these bad spirits. 
It does not manifest itself openly during the 
Novitiate, but slowly grows in a recess of the 
heart engendered by pouting and murmurs. 

If, unfortunately, it is not destroyed the 
moment it appears, what a sad future is in store 
for a Novitiate ! 

This spirit of party or cabal springs from pride 
which seeks to know more than the others ; 
from sensuality, which will not be inconveni- 
enced; it sustains and strengthens itself by 
particular friendships. 

Its aim is to slowly, gradually, form to itself 
a party, and then overthrow what is established. 

Is not this a terrible idea ? 

Innocent and holy novices, we proceed no 
further, for fear of scandalizing you ; but we 
conjure you, in the name of your holy vocation 
which has cost God so many miracles, and 
you perhaps so many sacrifices, to submit with 
simplicity to the guidance of those in authority 
oyer you. 



of the Novitiate. 73 

Let yourself be blamed ; let yourself be 
humiliated ; let your heart be torn; at any price 
let the bad seed be plucked out of your soul. 

O you upon whom the hopes of the com- 
munity are founded, if you are one day to 
become the cross of that house which received 
you with so much love ; if you are one day to 
rend the heart of your mother, scandalize your 
sisters, serve as tool to the devil — ah ! I will 
not tell you, return to the wortd, — but ask God, 
He will not refuse you the grace now when 
you love Him so much, ask him to let you 
die during your Novitiate ! 
v Yes, my sister, die, and secure your salvation! 



CHAPTER V, 

VIRTUES TO BE ACQUIRED AND PRAC- 
TISED DURING THE NOVITIATE. 

The special virtues of the Novitiates, those 
which the novices should particularly endeavor 
to acquire, are obedience, fraternal charity, humil- 
ity, mortification, simplicity. 

They are the first or rather the active result 
of the spirit which reigns in the Novitiate, and 
which, as we have already said, penetrates of 
itself into the soul which has given itself 
sincerely to God. 

We shall show the practical side* of the vir- 
tues, and in our Book for the Professed, we shall 
reconsider a few of them. 

Is it not to the practical view of these virtues, 
that the labor of the Novitiate is directed ? 
and will not the novice who has acquired the 
habit of making acts of humility and self- 
denial, attach herself with more love to these 
virtues later, when she studies their nature, 
their importance, and their different degrees ? 



Virtues to be acquired. 75 

At present it suffices her to know that God 
wishes her to practise such and such acts, and 
that these acts done with a pure intention will 
sanctify her.* 

* Could not the mistress, every week or fortnight, 
designate one of the virtues we are about to mention 
as the Virtue of the Novitiate, — that is to say the one 
of which each novice will endeavor to make a few 
acts — to be practised during the ensuing week or 
fortnight ? 

The name of this virtue might be even publicly 
placarded in the Novitiate. 

At chapter or on a day designated, each novice 
might give with simplicity an account of the acts 
she has practised, whether she has been pleased to 
limit herself to those here mentioned, or whether God 
has inspired her with others. 

The virtues should be changed each fortnight, 
though limited to the five mentioned, each of which 
can be resumed again in turn. It seems to us that 
this would be a means of sustaining emulation and, 
particularly, unity. This virtue, common to all the 
Novitiate, will not prevent the novice from applying 
herself to the acquirement of the particular virtues 
designated to her by her mistress or her confessor. 



j6 Virtues to be acquired 

I. 

OBEDIENCE. 

Obedience, which consists in submitting 
one's will to the will of another, is, according 
to the saints and doctors of the Church, the 
special virtue of the religious life. 

"One who is not obedient," says St. Ther- 
esa, "is not a religious. " Obedience prepares 
the soul to acquire other virtues ; it gradually 
destroys the seeds of evil inclinations ; it 
polishes all that is rude, it softens all that is 
hard in the soul; it acts on a community like 
fire, melting the hardest metals, fusing them 
so that they may be cast into a mould whence 
they emerge in a new form. 

If during the Novitiate you have been con- 
stant in the practice of this virtue, oh ! what 
a pious, what a fervent, what a holy and happy, 
religious you will be in consequence.* Obedi- 

* Do you remember when a child you were taught 
to write, they told you to let your hand be guided, 
and to follow only the movement given to it, that it 
might be trained to form the strokes of the letters; 
otherwise your writing would only have been scrib- 



during the Novitiate. yj 

ence seems hard at first, it exacts heartrending 
denials of will and judgment ; but once we 
have fully abandoned ourselves to obedience, 
it gives such a charm to life, it fills it with 
such delightful peace, that we would not be 
without its yoke. " Obey ; " said a religious, 
who had tasted all the happiness of this virtue, 
"by obedience you exhaust the source of your 
sins ; an obedient soul is, in a measure, im- 
peccable. Obey, and fill every moment with 
merit ; each action, each inconvenience, each 
step, is a diamond for your crown. 

"Obey: in obeying you will be always 
contented, for you will always be sure of 
doing the will of God." 

MOTIVES FOR OBEDIENCE. 

ist. The excellence of this virtue. — It sur- 
passes all the sacrifices we could offer to God ; 

bling. To train yourself to become a religious, you 
are not told to make your hand dead, and let it follow- 
that of its mistress, but you are told, deaden your willy 
and have no longer any but that of your Superior, 
otherwise your virtue will be only a species of spiritual 
scribbling. 



78 Virtues to be acquired 

for our will which we submit to Him is some- 
thing greater and more perfect than all the 
victims in the world ; therefore when Saul had 
reserved ten animals to be offered in sacrifice 
to God, contrary to the express command he 
had received from Him, Samuel told him, 
that to refuse to obey was tike the crime of idolatry, 
and that obedience was better than sacrifice, 

2d. The merit of this virtue. It gives such 
a value to every action, that the most trifling 
customary practice — a fast, for example, ob- 
served through a motive of obedience (par- 
ticularly when, being professed, it is done in 
virtue of a vow) — has not only the merit of a 
religious virtue, the most perfect of all the 
moral virtues, but if one's charity is equal to 
his obedience, the act is more meritorious 
than the most austere penance performed 
outside of obedience. 

3d. The confidence which this virtue gives. 
An inferior obeying in things which are not 
contrary to the law of God, is sure of not 
making a mistake before God, and of doing an 
action which is very pleasing to this sovereign 
Master, even though the Superior who 



during the Novitiate. 79 

commands her may be mistaken. Obedience 
is always an acceptable excuse before God, and 
if God, so to speak, were to reproach a soul 
for not having done sufficient penance, if the 
soul could tell Him she was not permitted to 
do more, God would accept this excuse. 

4th. The example of Jesus. The life of our 
Saviour was but one long act of obedience : 
My meat, saith He, is to do the will of Him that 
sent me. He was obedient to His mother, to 
His executioners ; obedient unto death on the 
cross. He lived in obedience, He died in 
obedience ; preferring , says St. Bernard, to die 
rather than disobey, 

Practices of Obedience, 

Accustom yourself to behold God in the 
person of your mistress, and to receive her 
orders as coming from God. 

God will not speak directly to you ; He 
will not tell you each morning : Do this action, 
do that action. . . but He will command you 
through the person who has been legitimately 
chosen to direct vou. 



80 Virtues to be acquired 

If you be convinced of this — and you are, 
since you have come to the Novitiate but to 
do the will of God more expressly than in the 
world — and you perfectly understand that this 
will is only manifested to you through your 
superiors, then nothing will be difficult to you. 

Allow your mistress full and entire liberty 
to charge you with any employment or to take 
it from you ; to assign you any place, or to 
make you change to another ; to command 
you any task, and to prevent your finishing it; 
. ... so that whenever you are called, you 
may say with simplicity: What do you wish 
me to do? 



Never reason about the motive, the occasion, 
the nature of a command you receive, but say : 
It is commanded, I wilt do it; It is no longer 
commanded \ I will leave it ; I am sent, I will go. 



Do not seek within yourself to discover the 



during the Novitiate. 81 

cause of a command, an advice, a reprimand. 
If your mistress is deceived, she is responsible 
before God, not you. 

What matters it that you do not see the end 
she has in view? You have only to act or 
accept.* 

Submit promptly, without delay, without 
hesitation ; leaving what you are engaged in, 
to do what you are commanded, and be ready 
every moment to answer : / am ready. 



Submit completely to what displeases you, 
as well as to what pleases you ; to what disturbs 
and inconveniences you, as well as to what 
delights you : to repose as well as to labor ; to 
conversation as well as to silence ; to granting 
yourself an indulgence, as well as to denying 
yourself. 



Submit joyfully, . . . and certainly if you 
remember that you are obeying God, how can 
you fail to be joyful? O my God! my God! 



82 Virtues to be acquired 

what happiness to feel that every moment I 
am doing as Thou wiliest, that I am pleasing 
Thee, that I am glorifying Thee ! 



Never do anything without permission, even 
the most ordinary things, unless they be clearly 
included in the duties of your charge ; in this 
way one proves her delicacy of conscience and 
her desire to please God. 



Never half-ask a permission, or express it 
in covert terms, as if you feared to be under- 
stood ; never importune for a permission, in 
order to extort what one is unwilling to grant 
you. As a general rule a good religious needs 
to ask very few permissions outside of those 
which the rule tells her to ask. 

Scrupulously accomplish what is command- 
ed you, but without anxiety, and with that 
affectionate spirit which seeks to please God ; 
do not assume more than a permission really 
grants, either as regards time, place, orcircum- 



during the Novitiate. 83 

stances; and each time you ask a permission 
prepare yourself to receive a refusal calmly.* 

SIMPLE REFLECTIONS ON OBEDIENCE. 

If Jesus were to make Himself visible and 
should speak to me, at the first sound of His 
voice would I not leave every thing in which 
I was engaged, however urgent, or useful it 
seemed to me ? 

Would I not leave a syllable, even a letter, 
unfinished, to fly where He called me ? 

Would I even wait till He had spoken clearly 
to me ? And the moment I could divine His 
intention in His eyes, or from a sign, would I 
ask that He should explain it further ? 

* In our Book for the Professed, we will mention, in 
order to refute them, the pretexts which the devil 
furnishes religious to prevent them from obeying, or 
at least to rob them of the merit of their obedience. 

The devil does not so easily attack novices on this 
point ; he fears them, particularly if they retain the 
simplicity which they brought with them to the 
Novitiate, and if they preserve that affection which 
made them regard their mistress as a mother, and their 
companions as sisters. 



84 Virtues to be acquired 

If Jesus made Himself visible, would I 
make any difference between the great and 
little things which He commanded me ? 

Would I dare to say : // is too difficulty it will 
give me too much trouble, it will be prejudicial 
to my health* 

If Jesus were to make Himself visible to 
me, would I weary Him until He had granted 
me what I desire : until He had placed me 
according to my inclination, my vanity, and 
my taste — until He had given me what my 
sensuality, rather than my necessity, claims ? 

Would I seek to gain my cause by dint of 
acts of civility offered through a spirit of 
hypocrisy rather than a sentiment of respect 
and submission ? 



If Jesus were to make himself visible, would 
I reason — murmur against His orders, when I 
did not perfectly comprehend the justice of 
them ? 

* Each time that a religious voluntarily fails in a 
point of her rule, she can truly say: I am actually 
doing what God does not wish me to do. 



during the Novitiate. 85 

Would I find it difficult to believe that His 
reasons were better than mine, though I did 
not understand them ? 

Would I not feel that all He commanded 
was holy, good, and useful, and that I must 
obey Him always and in all things? Would 
I not be happy to be under His orders, and 
to be chosen by Him to execute His will ? 

Then do I not know that by virtue of my 
rule it is Jesus who commands when my su- 
periors command me ? That it is Jesus whom 
I obey when I obey my Superiors ? 

Oh, when this thought is well understood 
how all murmurs, repugnances, and slothful- 
ness disappear ! 

My God ! help me to comprehend it, to love 
it, to make it my guide. 

II. 

FRATERNAL CHARITY. 

Little children, lave one another! We would 
have the mistress repeat, each morning, these 



86 Virtues to be acquired 

touching words of the apostle St. John when 
her novices are assembled for their first exercise: 
Little sisters, love one another; let us love one another 
dearly. 

And like the apostle the mistress, when 
asked, why do you always tell us the same 
thing ?—may reply : Love one another \ sisters Jove 
one another , and the Novitiate will be a reflection 
of heaven. 

Yes, it will be a reflection of heaven the 
Novitiate where all the sisters love one another. 

To love one another— that is, to bear with 
one another, to help one another, to esteem one 
another, to make one another happy, to care 
for one another, to give one another pleasure, 
to perfect one another, to sustain one another, 
to lead one another to heaven. . . My God ! 
how beautiful this would be ! We will never 
attain this perfection, but we should tend to- 
wards it with all our strength. 

Charity should be the virtue of predilection 
in religious houses ; it is the special virtue of 
the Heart of Jesus ; it is the soul of every 
association formed in the name of Jesus ; it 
constitutes the wealth, the glory, the honor of 



during the Novitiate. 87 

a community ; it is its charm ; it banishes mel- 
ancholy from it ; it binds the members together; 
it prepares each one for a sweet, peaceful, 
happy death, and ensures them an eternity of 
peace and love ! 
Motives for the practice of Fraternal Charity: 
1 st. The obligation of this virtue. Jesus makes 
it the subject of a formal precept : This is my com- 
mandment, that you love one another. Doubtless 
all the other commandments are precepts of 
our Lord, but this one to love our neighbor is 
His most especially. This is my commandment, 
says our Saviour, of the observance of which I 
am most tenacious. 

It is the distinctive mark of the true disciples 
of Jesus Christ : By this shall all men know that 
you are my disciples, says Our Saviour. He does 
not say if you are given to mortification or even 
to prayer, but if you have love one for another ; 
hence it follows that Jesus will not recognize 
him who is without charity. Even as we can 
not be saved without loving God, in like man- 
ner we can not be saved without loving our 
neighbor ! The two commandments are one, 
according to the w r ords of Our Lord Himself. 



88 Virtues to be acquired 

2d. The merit of this virtue. This is His 
commandment, says St. John, that we love one 
another. If we love one another God abideth in 
us, His charity is perfected in us. What con- 
soling words are these ! 

Charity obtains for us the remission of sin. 
// covers a multitude of sins ', says St. Peter. God 
has formally promised to do for us as we shall 
have done for others. If we love our neighbor, 
He will love us ; if we pardon, we shall be 
pardoned. Who could be unmoved by such 
promises ? 

3d. The example of fesus. It was for love 
of us that He came upon earth, for love of us 
that He suffered, for love of us that He died. 
The life of our Saviour was one succession of 
charitable acts : He sought the poor and the 
guilty, He went forward to meet them, He 
defended them, He bore with them, He par- 
doned them. Were not His last words, words 
of love and pardon ? 

Practices of Fraternal Charity. 

Have much esteem and veneration for all 
your sisters. 



during tke Novitiate. 89 

They are, like you, privileged souls chosen 
by God from out a multitude of others ; they 
are the beloved of Jesus Christ even though 
they have faults ; they are called like you to be 
great saints in heaven. Remember, then, that 
it is of each one of them that Jesus speaks when 
He tells you : As thou lovest her I will love 
thee ; as thou dost to her 1 will do to thee ; as thou 
judgest her 1 will judge thee. 

Always meet your sisters with an open, frank 
kindness, that they may approach you with- 
out fear or hesitation and feel perfect confidence 
in you. 

Avoid making any of them suffer in any 
way whatever ; and if you are engaged on the 
same task with a companion, leave the easiest 
portion to her ; God will reward you for it. 

Bear with your sisters, if not in that pleasant 
manner which is so difficult sometimes to as- 
sume, at least with the patience with which 
God bears with you. 



90 Virtues to bs acquired 

Frequently recall to mind, as the Imitation so 
forcibly says, that you also tax the forbearance 
of your sisters. 

If you have not the courage and virtue to 
seek the society of those who are not congenial 
to you, at least do not ostensibly avoid them. 
When Providence places you with them, be 
very affable, kind and indulgent. — O what 
pleasure you will give the Heart of Jesus by 
not repulsing a soul which He loves ! 

* 
Never refuse your sisters any service you can 
render them. It is particularly in this way that 
fraternal charity is shown : by helping one another, 
by relieving one who is overburdened, by silently 
and unostentatiously completing a task which a 
companion has not been able to finish, . . What 
delight God takes in a community which 
mutually help one another, and practise the 
sweet virtue of forbearance ! 

Console your sisters in their annoyances and 
their trials ; when you see them disturbed, try to 



during the Novitiate. 91 

be more gentle and considerate toward them. 
Tact should guide you here, and prevent you 
from seeking to bruskly dissipate the sadness 
of a poor companion whom you may surprise 
in tears, — To weep with those who weep is the 
surest means of consoling suffering. 



Never cherish resentment against any of your 
sisters ; literally follow that precept of the 
Gospel : Let not the sun go down upon your 
anger ; and bear in mind this still more explicit 
command : If thou offer thy gift at the altar, and 
there thou remember that thy brother hath anything 
against thee, leave there thy offering before the 
altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother ; 
and then coming thou shall offer thy gift 

Be the first to acknowledge your faults and 
to apologize even though you have some fears 
of being coldly received. If you think it well 
to defer speaking to a companion who is 
offended with you, seek an occasion of doing 
her some little service, without letting it be 
too apparent to her; pray fervently for her, 
and force yourself to say something in her favor. 



92 Virtues to be acquired 



Make it a rule to excuse everybody, to poinc 
out at least the good qualities of others ; and 
reconcile by the thousand means which your 
good angel will suggest, those who appear to 
be living less harmoniously together. 



Take upon yourself the sweet mission of 
bringing every where a simple, frank, pleasant 
cheerfulness : take part in the recreations in 
spite of your age and your tastes ; enliven the 
recreations when you perceive a tendency to 
pouting or murmuring ; let the sunshine of 
your lips gladden their hearts. Oh ! what 
good you will do, and how grateful God will 
be to you for having amused his children. 



Each morning impose upon yourself the 
obligation of giving some trifling alms : the 
alms of a consoling word, the alms of a 
good counsel, the alms of a smile, the alms 
of a prayer, the alms of a service rendered, etc. 



during the Novitiate. 93 

HUMILITY. 

"Humility," says St. Thomas, "is not, 
of itself, the first of virtues ; but it holds the 
first place among all virtues in being the 
foundation of all the others. 

A soul which is humble experiences no 
trouble in obeying or devoting itself. It feels 
that nothing is due it ; that it is indebted to ev- 
ery body for the favor of having been received 
into the community — for the favor of bearing 
with it ; and it is happy to prove its gratitude 
by its labor, and by seeking to give pleasure. 

Such a soul is contented with every thing: 
with coarse clothes, the least brilliant employ- 
ment, the commonest food, — contented to be 
forgotten, neglected. . # it never supposes 
that any one could do it wrong, or particularly 
that any one would wish to. . . Oh, such a 
novice spares herself a multitude of petty vex- 
ations and a multitude of trials which, in a 
community, are so tormenting, so trying, and 
end sometimes by making life unbearable. 

Humility is one of the most difficult virtues 
to acquire. 



94 Virtues to be acquired 

It is acquired by frequent reflections on the 
obscure, forgotten, hidden life of Jesus — on the 
silence of this good Master when He was out- 
raged ; by frequently recalling our own faults 
which, if known, would bring upon us shame 
and contempt ; by remembering that we are 
only the guardians of the talent and tact in us, 
and that if we attribute to ourselves the least 
glory therefrom, we rob God of it, who will 
not fail to exact restitution. . . 

We acquire it particularly by the repetition of 
the acts which we are about to mention, which, 
performed in the presence of God, will neces- 
sarily draw this grace into our souls. 

MOTIVES FOR HUMILITY. 

1st. The excellence of this virtue. It is the 
guardian of other virtues; it keeps them enclosed 
so to speak, and prevents our being robbed of 
them. "He," says St. Gregory, " who would 
amass virtues without humility is like one who 
leaves a precious dust exposed to the wind." — - 
" He who is not humble cannot be chaste/'' 
says another Saint. 



during the Novitiate. 95 

Since pride, according to Holy Scripture, is 
the beginning of all sin, — for the source of all 
sin is in the rebellion of the sinner, who seeks 
to do his own will rather than that of God — by 
a contrary reason, humility is the source of all 
virtue, for it submits the soul to God and does 
His will in all things. 

2d. The merit of this virtue. It appeases 
the anger of God, as we learn from several 
pages of the old and new Testament. David, 
Manasses, Achab, are spared because they hum- 
bled themselves before the Lord ; the Publican 
is justified because of his humility. 

It makes us loved by all ; for, imbued with 
this virtue we contradict no one, we yield to 
all, we are obliging to all. 

3d. The example of Jesus. — He expressly 
commends this virtue to us, as one of those 
which will make us resemble Him. He does 
not say: Learn of me to do miracles, but to be 
meek and humble of heart And what examples 
has He not given us : when, as a little child, 
He hid all marks of His Divinity, — when He 
submitted to pass as a criminal, — when, kneel- 
ing before Judas, He washed his feet — when 
finally, He died between two thieves ! 



96 Virtues to be acquired 

PRACTICES OF HUMILITY. 

Do not think too much of your good qual- 
ities — your tact, your talents. 

Do not let your mind dwell upon what you 
did in the world, upon the esteem with which 
you were surrounded, upon the compliments 
you received. 

Do not maintain your opinion with obstinate 
haughtiness nor abandon it with that contemp- 
tuous air which seems to tell an opponent: 
7" do not care to discuss with a person of so little 
intelligence. 

Do not desire to know every thing nor to 
be the first to give news to the community. 

be- 
speak of yourself as little as possible ; 
hardly ever of your family, your country, your 
position in the world, — what you could have 
been, the persons whose society you frequented, 
the visits you receive. 

Do not dwell upon murmuring thoughts, 



during the Novitiate. 97 

which always spring from wounded pride, 
but say softly to yourself : God has permitted 
that they should neglect me, that they should 
wound me, that they should humiliate me ; He 
has done wisely. 

Sometimes repeat, before the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, these words of the Imitation as if Jesus 
Himself addressed them to you : If thou 
wouldst know and learn anything to the purpose, 
love to be unknown and esteemed as nothing. Recite 
the Litany of Humility which you will find in 
the chapter of Maxims for the Novitiate. 

Have no ambition for any special charge 
or employment ; reply with simplicity to the 
questions of your superiors concerning your 
acquirements and what you were accustomed 
to do in the world, and be at peace. 



Do not excuse yourself too vehemently, even 
when you believe you are right; and make 
every effort to forget the person who has 
offended you and the subject of the offense. 



98 Virtues to be acquired 

Banish from your exterior all appearance of 
hauteur and self-sufficiency, everything which 
seems presuming, every measure which savors 
of pride or worldliness; from your tanguage 
every word which seems like a command, or 
which is cold and unfriendly. 

From your tone all that is brusk and im- 
perious. 

Oblige yourself to wait a few days, through 
a spirit of humility, before asking again for 
something which is not absolutely necessary 
and which they have forgotten to give you. 



Always ask your permissions in the terms 
and the position prescribed by the rule and 
custom. — In some houses every permission is 
asked kneeling. 

If your dress is not as good — if it is coarser 
than that of others, if it is not as well cut, wear 
it without appearing to notice it ; let it be the 
same in regard to everything that is given for 



during the Novitiate. 99 

your use : an old book, a rosary which is some- 
what worn, bedding which is less convenient, etc. . . 

Ask, but with simplicity, for the employments 
which are usually most repugnant to nature, 
and those which are the office of servants in a 
household; accept cheerfully whatever employ- 
ment is given you : sweeping, for example, or 
washing the dishes, etc. 

Regard yourself, before God, as the servant 
of others; and frequently, without letting any 
one perceive you, act towards every body as if 
you really were the servant of all. 

If God has gifted you with any particular 
talent — skill in needle-work, a flexible, sweet voice, 
taste in decoration — doubtless, you must not 
parade it too much ; but when there is ques- 
tion of rendering a service or giving pleasure, 
do not require too much urging, under pretext 
that you do not know how, that you are not gifted 
in that way, etc. 



ioo Virtues to be acquired 

Do not talk too much of your spiritual 
miseries, of your little love of God ; nor affect to 
despise yourself in everything, nor to say that 
you are the last, the most worthless in the house. . . 
Think it, if you can, but do not say it. There 
is often more self-love than humility in saying it. 

IV. 

MORTIFICATION. 

Coming from the world into a community 
you must banish from your heart, your mind, 
your imagination, your senses, a multitude of 
things which have germinated and been fos- 
tered by the world in which you lived. These 
things are, perhaps, not bad in themselves, but 
they are incompatible with the religious life. 

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal enumerates 
them thus: "It is most important not to 
receive young girls who have a complacent 
care of their faces, a too tender love of their 
bodies, and who are still more tender in mind/' 

Each climate has its different productions. 
The climate of a religious life can not endure 
the productions of life in the world. 



during the Novitiate. ioi 

The cutting-off of these worldly productions 
is called mortification; for as branches die when 
separated from the trunk which afforded them 
life, in like manner die thoughts, desires, affec- 
tions, actions, when separated from the will. 

On the threshold of the Novitiate the follow- 
ing words of our Saviour should be written: 
If any will follow me let him deny himself! In 
the Novitiate these words of the Imitatioii 
should be written/ The more perfectly one for- 
sakes these things below, and the more he dies to 
himself by the contempt of himself the more speedily 
grace cometh, enter eth in more plentifully, and the 
higher it elevateth the free heart. ( 

What, then, must be cut off? 

You will soon learn by being attentive to 
the lessons of your mistress, by reading your 
rule, by seeing your more advanced com- 
panions, and, particularly, by obeying the voice 
of your conscience.* 

*We would not speak of corporal mortifications, 
such as fasts f disciplines, hair-cloth, etc. A religious 
must never practise any of these without the authority 
first of all of her confessor, then of her superior, un- 
less they are prescribed by the rule of the house. 



io2 Virtues to be acquired 

MOTIVES FOR THE PRACTICE OF MORTIFICATION. 

1st. The necessity of this virtue. Jesus having 
said: "Ifany man will come after me, let him 
deny himself, and take up his cross and follow 
me; and salvation being only possible in as far 
as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we must 
conclude that self-denial, that is to say mor- 
tification, is necessary for salvation. The 
council of Trent declares that "those who are 
baptized still retain within themselves a fire 
of concupiscence, against which they must 
unceasingly struggle, and which is a source 
of merit for them if they courageously resist 
with the grace of Jesus Christ ; for we shall not 
be crowned till after we have fought." 

"The flesh, " says St. Thomas, "is the source 
of viqe ; " if, then, we would be free from vice, 
we must subdue the flesh. 

2d. The ?nerit of this virtue. It causes us to 
expiate our sins, and makes us more worthy of 
the regard of God. It makes us less suscep- 
tible to temptation and stronger to resist it. 
It fits us for meditation, and causes us to 
receive the impressions of grace with greater 
facility. 



during the Novitiate. 103 

3d. The example of Jesus Christ, The 
words of St. Paul, Christ did not please Himself 
should enable us to form a general rule for 
our mortifications ; and, to silence the revolt of 
the senses before a trial, a contradiction, a 
humiliation, we need but to cast our eyes upon 
a crucifix, saying : Behold my model. 

PRACTICES OF MORTIFICATION. 

Your mind must gradually become less cu- 
rious to know everything, to penetrate every- 
thing, to read or to relate everything ; 

Less inclined to parade its knowledge ; 

Less keen in conversation, less ardent in 
speaking, less disturbed at the least contra- 
diction, less eager for news, less quick at 
repartee. 

Let it not discuss with warmth ; let it not 
always seek to be justified ; let it know how to 
yield with a good grace ; let it not suppose 
that it knows more than others. 

Your will must not seek to rule everybody 
nor obstinately hold to its own views. 



104 Virtues to be acquired 

Let it yield to what is commanded without 
seeking the motive of the command ; and, 
particularly, let the command not be despised 
on account of the faults of the one who gives 
it. Let it not seek to choose its occupations 
or office, nor a companion whom it finds 
more congenial, a position which flatters its 
self-love, nor even a place which affords it more 
material comfort. 

Let it never be heard to say, / wish or I do 
not wish. 

Your heart must be less easily attracted to 
creatures, less attached to the charms of the 
senses — to what is sympathetic ; let it regulate 
its affections and never suffer one which affords 
it a certain tenderness, a certain enjoyment ; let 
it preserve, if it will, the memory, and even 
a very tender and a very affectionate memory, 
of its family, but let not this affection occupy 
it during prayer ; let it only serve to make it 
daily recommend its loved ones to God, but 
it must never interfere with any duty. 

Let it carefully avoid forming any of those 
friendships which doubtless give a certain 



during the Novitiate. 105 

charm to life, which smooth all the trials of 
community life, but which gradually enervate 
and detach the heart from God, duty, obedi- 
ence, make the character dissimulating, hard 
to govern, and, in a short time, tarnish the 
soul with grave faults. 

Your imagination must accustom itself to 
dwell in the presence of God : let it be unre- 
lenting in banishing those memories of the past 
which appear in most attractive shapes, — those 
schemes of perfection which lie outside the work 
of obedience, which disgust you with what you 
have to do, and destroy the joy and merit of 
accomplished duty, — those sometimes ridiculous 
efforts by which it seeks to satisfy our curiosity, 
our inclinations, our predominant passion, — 
all dwelling upon what has been said to us, 
upon what has been done to us, which only 
excites discontent, leads sometimes to resent- 
ment, and makes us lose the religious spirit. 

Your body must know how to endure, some- 
times cold, sometimes heat, sometimes weari- 



106 Virtues to be acquired 

ness. . . and not, like a spoiled child, cry out, 
for a small trifle which the will can obviate 
better than remedies. 

The true mark of a generous soul in an 
inferior body is, that it never complains, that 
it does not amuse itself by dwelling on its 
malady, or upon what it requires or upon what 
is given it. It tells its indispositions without 
exaggerating them, accepts the remedies which 
are given, takes the rest which is ordered, then 
suffers patiently and awaits the accomplishment 
of God's will. 

Your senses must be subservient to your 
reason. 

Let your eyes be forbidden the gratification 
of pure curiosity ; withhold your gaze when 
neither a motive of instruction or a motive of 
good breeding prompts you to look ; with still 
greater reason must it turn from what is sensual, 
frivolous, or in the slightest degree immodest. 

Let your ears refuse to lend themselves to 
useless frivolous discourses which risk awak- 
ening in your heart profane, worldly, sensual 



during the Novitiate. 107 

memories, or which will teach you what your 
vocation forbids you to know. 

Let your sense of taste never seek its gratifi- 
cation ; let it accept with gratitude what pleases 
it, but let it not sharply reject what displeases 
it ; between meals let it be deprived of all that 
is not absolutely necessary, and even at table 
let it not always take the dishes which are best 
seasoned to its liking ; let it be forbidden all 
reflection upon what is served in the refectory, 
and let it particularly guard against yielding 
to murmurs. 

Let your hands be deprived of all which tends 
merely to gratify sensuality. . • respect your 
body, respect that of others : the body is the 
temple of God ; always conduct yourself as if 
you were in a temple. 

Do not say: // is a trifle: say rather, Would it 
not offend the glance of my Angel Guardian? 

Avoid all games in which there is too much 
familiarity; every caress, however slight it may 
be, particularly if it is given without witnesses, 



108 Virtues to be acquired 

and hold strictly to what the rule prescribes 
on this point. 

Let your tongue also be subservient to reason 
and faith. Know how to restrain it when the 
rule imposes silence : in the dormitory, in the 
refectory, in the chapel, going and coming in 
the corridors. . . and if necessity or charity 
oblige you to speak, do so in a low voice and 
with few words. Restrain your tongue during 
recreation, and be as the apostle tells us : swift 
to hear, but slow to speak. 

Speak little, and leave the conversation to 
others. 

Speak profitably, that you may give edifica- 
tion or amusement. 

Speak rather in a low than a loud voice. 

Withhold a jesting word, when the conversa- 
tion is sufficiently enlivened. 

Abstain, particularly, from all that is sin. 

IMPORTANT REMARKS ON MORTIFICATION. 

There are very fervent but inexperienced 
novices, who believe themselves obliged to 



during the Novitiate. 109 

make every act of mortification which occurs to 
them. And thus they live in continual con- 
straint ; and self-denial, which brings joy to the 
soul, is for them real suffering and a source 
of scruples, so that they end by abandoning 
everything. 

Here are some practical counsels given by 
Father Marin: "We must distinguish three 
kinds of acts of mortification : — 

" Those which you are free to practise or 
omit, as you please, without incurring any 
fault ; 

"Those which you can not omit without 
some fault, or without gratifying nature too 
much. 

"Those, finally, which you can not omit 
without failing in the principal duties of your 
state. 

"Thus, in the first case, during recreation the 
thought comes to you to withhold an insig- 
nificant remark ; in the refectory it occurs to 
you to deprive yourself of part of your portion, 
which you would willingly eat, etc. . . You 
are perfectly free to act or not to act, and you 
should reject as a tendency to scruples, all 



no Virtues to be acquired 

remorse at not having performed these acts of 
mortification. 

"In the second case, you perceive that the 
repartee which you are about to make will 
only flatter your self-love, and be of no benefit 
to any one ; you feel a too ardent desire to go 
forward to meet a sister whom you love . . . 
be silent in the first instance, moderate in the 
second. It is by repeated acts of this kind 
that the soul becomes strong ; by neglecting 
them that it becomes tepid. 

"In the third case, you are commanded 
something which contradicts your will: you 
do not care to do it yet, — or you would do it 
in such a manner ; you are given as a com- 
panion a sister with whom you do not sympa- 
thize. . . Obey, and by an elevation of yout 
heart to God subdue the opposition which 
you feel. You are obliged to make these acts 
of mortification." 

"To preserve a just medium and avoic 
going beyond grace, it is necessary," says th( 
venerable Boudon, " to take the advice of a wis< 
and enlightened director. Many persons hav< 
ruined their health by indiscreet penances 



daring the Novitiate. 1 1 1 

By too much vigil and fasting they destroy 
their stomach and their head ; they wish to 
restrain, to apply themselves too much, and 
they exhaust their strength and are soon 
unable to do anything. Wishing to imitate 
the penances of the saints, they do not reflect 
that the ways of grace are very different, that 
each one must live according to the measure 
of grace which God has given him, and they 
regard as an inspiration from heaven what is 
only a temptation of the devil/' 

A fault into which new-born fervor fre- 
quently falls is that of practising austerities 
beyond its strength. We leave the world ; we 
behold ourselves covered with the stains we 
have received there, — we have a horror of our 
condition, — we read with admiration, mixed 
with fear, of the bloody macerations inflicted 
upon themselves by those victims of penance 
who have made the deserts of Palestine illus- 
trious. A young person still weak and delicate 
wishes to imitate them. Her bed is anything 
but soft, nevertheless she would sleep on the 
hard ground ; her food is already very frugal, 
and she still retrenches a portion ; hair-cloth, 



112 Virtues to be acquired 

sharp pointed girdles, are the objects of her 
desires and repeated supplication ; frequently 
she even uses these instruments of penance 
without any authority, impelled by the con- 
viction that these mortifications are necessary 
for her. 

What is the result of such conduct ? Two 
things : one is that God does not bless what 
she does ; for it is her own will, not obedience, 
which influences her. The other, that she 
early exhausts her strength, ruins her health, 
and if she does not render herself incapable 
of any good, she makes herself incapable of the 
great services which she might have rendered. 

Finally, that you may not be exposed to 
these mistakes, render an account in all sim- 
plicity to your mistress, of your daily self 
denials, of the desire of further privations 
which arise in you, and the motives which 
impel you not to limit your mortifications to 
those usually practised in the Novitiate. 



during the Novitiate 113 



SIMPLICITY. 

Simplicity, like humility, is a difficult virtue 
to acquire ; and unless it be our natural dis- 
position or a special grace, we rarely possess 
it in all its fulness. 

It has almost disappeared from the world, 
and it is only in communities, and particularly 
in novitiates, that we find it again in all its 
charms. Bat there how beautiful and attractive 
this virtue is ! It gives the novice all the love- 
liness of a child, all the charms of infancy, all 
the candor of a heart which has never loved 
but God and its Mother, and knows not even 
' the name of sin. 

"Simplicity," says St. Francis de Sales, 
"makes us resemble children who think, speak, 
and act openly without malice. They believe all 
they are told. They have no care or anxiety 
for themselves, — are they not protected by their 
parents ? They love honestly, without dwell- 
ing upon their own satisfaction ; they take 
everything in good faith, rejoicing in all good 



114 Virtues to be acquired 

nature, without desire or curiosity to study its 
cause and effects." 

Simplicity is a contagious virtue it is so full 
of charms, and one truly simple soul in a 
Novitiate suffices to make all the others in- 
stinctively seek to be like it. 

The desire alone of simplicity supposes a 
beautiful soul and a kind heart. . . In pro- 
portion as we become less kind we wish to be 
less simple, and we ridicule simplicity. Apply 
yourself to the practice of the acts which we 
will mention to you, and God will bless your 
efforts. 

MOTIVES FOR ACQUIRING SIMPLICITY. 

i st. The excellence of this virtue. — It is the 
character of the children of God and the 
disciples of Jesus, who are compared in Holy 
Scripture to sheep and to doves, on account 
of their candor and innocence. But what is 
more, it is the character of true religion ; for 
there is nothing more opposed to eternal truth 
than untruth and dissimulation. 

2d. The merit of this virtue. — It makes us 
pleasing in the sight of God, who hates dis- 



during the Novitiate. 115 

simulation, anathematizes a double heart, and 
loves to converse with the simple. 

It makes us the beloved of Jesus, who 
caressed little children, who preferred St. John 
to the other apostles, on account of his purity 
and candor, — virtues which never dwell in a 
soul whence simplicity is banished. 

It also makes us pleasing to others ; for a 
simple soul is never a burden to any one, never 
troubles or interferes with any one, is useful 
and kind to all, and does not know how to 
think evil of any one. 

3d. The marks of this virtue. The simple 
soul is constantly the same to every one and 
before every one ; it is equally charitable to all 
without exception, possessing always that 
cheerful air which comes from the testimony 
of a good conscience ; when it has committed 
a fault it frankly acknowledges it, and calmly 
bears the punishment or humiliation which 
follows ; it proves itself every where and in 
every thing the enemy of duplicity, and has 
no intention but to please God. 



Ii6 Virtues to be acquired 

PRACTICES OF SIMPLICITY. 

Simplicity of Mind. 

Without pretension, never striving to excel 
others nor even to be remarkable ; but ac- 
complishing to the best of one's ability the 
duty which is imposed. 

Never comparing ourselves with others, or 
priding ourselves upon the natural advantages 
or spiritual favors we have received from God, 
and, above all, never preferring ourselves to 
others. 

Simplicity of Heart. 

Towards God: Entertaining a filial fear free 
from trouble and disquietude ; an affectionate 
confidence free from presumption ; an exact 
fidelity free from over-exactness and subtlety ; 
a continual desire to please God and do His 
will, like a child who tenderly loves its mother 
and appreciates all her love for it. 

Towards our neighbor : Sincere and cordial 
affection, amiable but discreet frankness, sweet, 
patient, considerate charity free from trouble 
or silliness. 



during the Novitiate. \\J 

Towards oneself. A spirit of order and 
peace ; patience with defects, mistakes, and 
failures. 

Simplicity of Disposition. 

Without whim or caprice ; without ardor 
or indifference ; without vivacity or oddity; 
yielding without letting it appear that we yield; 
sacrificing our will and opinion, without let- 
ting the effort or the sacrifice be apparent ; 
accommodating ourselves to all without seek- 
ing to parade or make a merit of what we do. 



Simplicity of Action. 

Without hurry or anxiety; without encum- 
bering ourselves with several duties at one 
time ; solely occupying ourselves with the 
present duty as if we had but that one to 
perform : completely for God in prayer, com- 
, pletely for our neighbor in our charitable 
relations ; completely for work when duty 
commands it. . . but always for God, according 
to the spirit of God, in the presence of God, 



Ii8 Virtues to be acquired 

Simplicity of Exterior \ 

In dress : Modest, free from affectation, 
being neither painstaking nor careless ; in 
manner, natural and unstudied ; in our walk 
thinking only of going where we have to go ; 
in deportment, serious without stiffness ; in 
speech, free from malice, subtlety, particular 
accent or affected expressions ; in every thing, 
free from a desire to please, no less than a fear 
of not pleasing. 

Simplicity in Piety. 

Avoiding, equally, the eccentricities which 
disfigure it, the whims which dishonor it, the 
narrowness which ridicules it, the illusions 
which destroy it, the scruples which torment 
it and end by making it odious. Avoiding 
the discouragement of pusillanimity, the trans- 
ports of presumption ; desiring no other doc- 
trine than that of one's director and superiors; 
reading no other books than those which we 
are counseled to read, and frequently asking 
God to retain us in the common path of 
perfection. 



during the Novitiate. 119 

Happy the novice who each day endeavors 
to practise a few of these counsels ! 

To sum up, as it were in an animated pic- 
ture, the important doctrine of this chapter and 
the chapter on the Spirit of the Novitiate, we 
are going to transcribe here a precious testi- 
monial which you may read with profit: — 



SKETCH OF LIFE AT ST. SULPICE AT THE BEGINNING OF ITS 
ESTABLISHMENT. 

The recreations were very profitable and very 
useful. The members all remained together, 
never separating into couples. They enter- 
tained one another with frank gaiety ; they 
made short reflections on the subjects of the 
meditation, the spiritual reading, the reading 
in the refectory, the examples in it which they 
had remarked ; these were the usual topics at 
recreation. They conversed thus together in 
fraternal union, with great gentleness, cordial- 
ity, simplicity, honesty, and deference, towards 
one another. 

They took pleasure in conquering the pre- 
judices which one sometimes feels against 



120 Virtues to be acquired 

certain persons ; so that they manifested more 
friendliness towards those who pleased them 
least, and, to make it still more perfect, they 
endeavored to win them by the most entire 
cordiality. 

They possessed nothing which was not at 
the disposition of their fellow-members ; it was 
even necessary to put a limit to this great desire 
of helping their neighbor. 

Each one was zealous in encouraging himself 
and others to love God. 

They endeavored to cultivate a real love 
for a poor, hurnble, obscure state of life ; they 
frequently spoke of the advantages of this 
manner of living. 

They frequently spoke of the practice of 
union with Our Lord. 

Love of poverty was so great that they gloried 
in the poorest things, and profited of different 
occasions to show the absurdity of those who 
seek to conform to the world. They ridiculed 
any one who was affectedly neat about his 
shoes, his girdle, and his hat. 

They had a holy enthusiasm for the employ- 
ments which were humble and humiliating, or 



during the Novitiate. 121 

in which there was any difficulty : not only did 
they offer themselves for such employments, 
but they earnestly sought them. 

The greater number — and even all — mani- 
fested more affection for the good order and 
spiritual welfare of the house than if it had 
been their own. The majority were most 
grateful that they had been received and were 
suffered to remain in the community. 

They had a great regard for their brothers ; 
they yielded to them in everything, each look- 
ing upon himself as the last and least among 
them ; they considered themselves very much 
honored if they were employed in the least little 
ceremony. 

Love of the world was so banished that any 
one would have felt great remorse of conscience 
to have it spoken of with the least esteem, and 
it would have given pain to the others to have 
it spoken of in this way. If it was mentioned, 
it was who could decry it most They re- 
nounced all attachments to country, kindred, 
and the world, and they went to God with 
their whole hearts, abandoning themselves to 
tfie arms pf His Providence, the will of their 



122 Virtues to be acquired 

superior, of their director — at whose simple 
word they would have gone to the ends of 
the earth. 

They showed him their letters, and loved to 
open their hearts to him upon all things, great 
or little, ordinary or extraordinary. 

The cordial feeling, or perfect union, which 
existed among the seminarians was considered 
a special characteristic of the house. 

They had a tender devotion to the Blessed 
Virgin which they manifested on all occasions, 
particularly by never doing anything or under- 
taking anything without asking her permission; 
they saluted her image on entering and leaving 
their room or that of their director. They 
frequently spoke of this devotion and its prac- 
tices : such as fasting, practising some mortifica- 
tion or giving alms on the vigils of her feast, 
or visiting one of her churches. 

The least imperfections — self indulgence, 
want of modesty, obstinacy and dissipation of 
mind were strongly disapproved, and they were 
well on their guard against yielding to them. 

They never spoke to any one of the mor- 
tifications they practised ; if one spoke to 



during the Novitiate. 123 

another of them he was given to understand 
that it was not wise. 

They were faithful to offer to God the first 
fruits of all things, depriving themselves of all 
they could for love of Him. They made a 
practice always to wear a crucifix and a medal 
of the Blessed Virgin. They never spoke of 
eating ; they sought what was least palatable, 
such as the remains of stale bread, etc. 

They mutually encouraged one another to 
adopt some of the practices of Blessed Berch- 
mans, principally the following : 

"I will allow myself to be guided as if I 
were an infant a day old. 

HI will avoid, as a veritable evil, asking a 
dispensation, without a real and great necessity. 

"I will regard my admission to the house 
as a special favor, and all that is given me I 
will receive as unmerited. 

"With my brothers I will always be filled 
with respect and humility. 

"When an occasion for denying myself 
occurs I will embrace it with all my heart. 

"The mortifications to which I will attach 
most importance shall be those of every day 
life." 



124 Virtues to be acquired 

There were some who carried their obedience 
so far, that they watched the least sign, the least 
motion, the least indication, of the will of the 
superior, so that the latter had to be very care- 
ful to sav nothing which could be taken as an 
order to do anything prejudicial to their health. 

They never knew what it was to dispense 
themselves from any exercise ; at the first sound 
of the bell every door opened. 

They preserved a strict silence ; they never 
recognized one another even in the halls or on 
the stairs ; and one frequently saluted another 
without knowing who he was. 

Each one had one or two monitors who 
warned him of his faults, and he said a Hail 
Mary for him from whom he received the ad- 
monition. Each one took in good part all 
that the others said ; they avoided almost as. 
a crime every kind of suspicion, and charitably 
bore with those who appeared grave or sad. 
When they beheld a fellow-member sad or 
thoughtful, they compassionated his suffering 
and gently endeavored to cheer him. When 
they had the least trouble they hastened to 
reveal it to their director or superior. 



duri?ig the Novitiate. 125 

They detested particular friendships and held 
them in horror as the pests of a community. 

Pious practices which they proposed to themselves. 

Before beginning an action always to take a 
moment to direct one's intention. 

To repress the first impulse of nature : for 
instance, when one returns very tired from a 
walk the first impulse is to rest ; to repress this 
impulse it is well to wait a few moments before 
taking a seat. When there is something to 
be seen, do not look at once ; and the same 
with the other senses. To do all things 
through love, through a supernatural motive, 
according to a spirit of faith and the maxims 
of the Gospel. 

To have at heart one's spiritual progress, that 
of his brothers, and the spiritual welfare of 
the community. 

To be faithful to the least practices of virtue, 
of punctuality, of modesty, of religion, of 
mortification, and of humility. 

To be as cordially frank and open as a child 
with one's director, even in the most trifling 



126 Virtues to be acquired. 

things ; to frequently speak of this practice 
and inspire others with it. 

To practise obedience in everything, avoid- 
ing doing anything through our own choice. 

To always select the most inconvenient 
objects for oneself. 

To like only what is poorest in food and 
clothing. 

Never to say a word in a spirit of raillery. 

It is a mark of fervor to be ingenious in 
inventing means of mortifying oneself in every- 
thing : for example, in bodily postures, at table, 
at recreation, in conversation, in walks, in 
curiosity, and the different opportunities for 
satisfying the senses." 



CHAPTER VI. 

MAXIMS OF THE NOVITIATE.* 

We understand by these words — maxims of 
the Novitiate, the thoughts with which the mind 
should be almost continually nourished during 
all this time of formation to a religious life. 

These maxims are like a summary of the 
spirit and virtues of the Novitiate ; they are 
expressed in few words, that they may penetrate 
more deeply, that they may recur more easily 

* The maxims contained in this chapter and the 
treatise which we will give in the next, may serve 
mistresses and superiors as subjects of conference. 
One could easily, by commenting on these materials, 
speak with profit to the novices every Sunday of the 
Novitiate year ; sometimes you might even oblige the 
novices themselves to develop a few of these maxims 
in writing. To do this it will suffice to reply to these 
two questions : Why ? How ? The end of this labor 
will be to form and strengthen the judgment, and at 
the same time teach them to reflect. One never 
reflects so well as pen in hand. 



128 Maxims of the Novitiate. 

to the memory, and that they may serve as a 
point of recall, in a moment of doubt, of 
anxiety, of temptation, or even of a fall. 

They are like seeds which must be almost 
daily sown in the soul : sown with abundance 
during the Novitiate, they will germinate sooner 
or later ; and many an act of virtue, many a 
pious thought, many an impulse for good, will 
be the effect of one of these maxims with 
which we have been impressed. 

They are numerous ; for all of them not 
being suited to every character, we judged it 
necessary to multiply them. 

They are diversified : for we wished that they 
might apply to almost every situation of the 
soul, and serve as guidance for every action of 
the day. 






The maxims which should particularly 
nourish the soul of a religious are the grea 
truths of faith which form the basis of ever) 
christian and religious edifice. 

They are expressed in clear, precise term* 



Maxims of the Novitiate. 129 

in the Gospel, and we will merely indicate them 
here. 

1 st. The eight beatitudes, and all that magnifi- 
cent sermon on the mount (St. Matt, v, vi, vii.) 
which is an abridgment of the evangelical doc- 
trine, and contains in a few words a sure rule 
for every occasion, a perfectly attainable means 
of 'sanctity \ a complete code of peace and happiness. 

2d. Those striking words of our Saviour 
which, though always the subject of meditation, 
ever afford new food to the soul, and form a 
sure and practical rule of conduct. 

* 

What doth it profit a man if he gain the 
whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul ? 

Martha, Martha, thou art troubled about 
many things ; but one thing is necessary. 

If any man will come after me let him deny 
himself, and take up his cross and follow me. 



130 Maxims of the Novitiate. 

Learn of me because I am meek and humble 
of heart. 

* 
1 No man putting his hand to the plough and 
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven. 

* 

He that loveth father or mother more than 
me is not worthy of me. 

Every one that hath left house, or brethrei^ 
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or 
children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall 
receive an hundred-fold, and shall possess 
life- everlasting. ■<■ ■ '>' 

We have borrowed the following maxims 
from ascetic authors. * 

* We have not thought fit to gather the maxims of 
St. Francis de Sales, St. Liguori, Father Bertrand, as 
they are to be found in all the books authorized. for 
use in the Novitiate. 

We counsel the novices to extract from these books 
and preserve for tlieir use the maxims and sentences 
which most impress them. 



Maxims of the Novitiate. 131 

HAPPY THE RELIGIOUS I 

Who has found peace of heart, and will not let it be 
disturbed ; 

Who sees Jesus every where: in her superiors, 
her companions, her employment; 

Who frequently consults her Angel Guardian ; 
Who never discusses, but does all that others wish; 
Who finds nothing impossible to obedience or 
charity ; 

Who never interferes in what does not concern 
her ; 

Who bears 

Contempt without a murmur, 
Correction without an excuse, 
Praise without pleasure, 
Suffering without complaint, 
Confusion without trouble, 
Commandment without a reply; 
Who judges no one, and is pleasant to every one ; 
Who accepts with indifference every office, every 
companion, every task ; 

Who, finally, bears with patience her own defects 
and those of others. 

THE EIGHT BEATITUDES OF A RELIGIOUS. 

To be humbled, 
To be contradicted, 
To be refused, 



132 Maxims of the Novitiate. 

To be reprimanded, 

To be punished, 

To be forgotten, 

To be the last everywhere* 

To be abandoned* 



LITANY OF HUMILITY. 

O Jesus meek and humble of heart ! 

Jesus, hear me. 
From the desire of being esteemed, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the desire of being loved, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the desire of being sought, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the desire of being honored, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the desire of being praised, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the desire of being preferred, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the desire of being consulted, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the desire of being approved, 

Deliver me, Jesus, 
From the desire of being considered, 

Deliver me, Jesus, 



Maxims of the Novitiate. .133 

From the fear of being humbled, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 

From the fear of being despised, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being rebuffed, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being calumniated, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being forgotten, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being ridiculed, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being wronged, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being suspected, 

Deliver me, Jesus. 
* 
That others may be loved more than I, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to wish. 
That others may be esteemed more than I, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to wish. 
That others may grow in the opinion of the world 
and I diminish, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to wish. 
That others may be employed and I set aside, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to wish. 
That others may be praised and I forgotten, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to wish. 
That others may be preferred before me in every- 
thing, 



134 Maxims of the Novitiate. 

Jesus, grant me the grace to wish. 
That others may be more holy than I, provided I am 
as holy as I can be, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to wish. 



MEANS OF ACQUIRING AN INTERIOR SPIRIT. 

I. 

AVOID : 

1st. The least sins. 

Because they oblige God to refuse us many graces ; 

Because they take from us a portion of light 
necessary to know God's will ; 

Because they destroy the vigor of the soul, and take 
from it its relish and facility for virtue. 

2d. The least things which displease God. 

For we grieve God when we voluntarily displease 
Him ; it is showing Him little love or gratitude ; it is 
showing Him in a measure regret that He called us to 
a religious life. 

3d. Pleasures of the senses. 
Because even legitimate pleasures, when we indulge 
in them immoderately and without being careful to 
refer them to God, gradually destroy the vigor of the 
character, open the heart to all kinds of thoughts, and 
weaken the will. Because the soul which indulges in 



Maxims of the Novitiate. 1 3 5 

every permitted pleasure is in danger of yielding to 
forbidden pleasures. 

4th. Seeking to gratify nature. 

Because in proportion as we gratify nature we 
diminish grace ; because, being the disciples of Jesus, 
we should follow in His footsteps, and " Chris t," .says 
St. Paul, " sought not the things of this life." 

5 th. Worldly conversations. 

Because we always lose in them a little of the 
interior spirit ; because these conversations disgust us 
with meditation and fill our mind with memories or 
visionary plans, 

6th. Satisfactions of the mind. 

Because if sought with avidity they engender pride, 
contempt of others, and even insubordination; because 
nothing impedes the interior life and the action of the 
Holy Spirit in a soul like studies pursued outside of 
duty; even those counselled by duty have the same 
effect when pursued with too much ardor. 

Therefore the mind which is too ardent in the 
pursuit of science, will with difficulty apply itself to 
meditation. 

The mind which runs after news will never be 
recollected. 

7th. Sensible consolations in spiritual exercises. 
Because they are not devotion, and under this sen- 



L SSL 



136 Maxims of the Novitiate. 

sibility may be hidden grave faults and humiliating 
weaknesses. 

Because illusion is more easy in consolations than 
indrynessor even in ordinary devotion. 

Because the saints who were most favored with 
them have always feared them. 

Because they are frequently the result of tempera- 
ment rather than the grace of God. 



II; 



RENOUNCE : 

1st. Your own will. 

Because Jesus renounced His. I came not to do my 
wil^ but the will of my Father; and because He was 
submissive to Mary and Joseph, and even to His 
executioners. Because self-will is the cause of all 
sin,— take away self-wjil and there would be no hell. 

2d. Your own judgmfnU 

Because since the entrance of sin into the world, it 
is rarely upright or, above all, disinterested, jn what 
relates to ourselves. 

Because God in His mercy has willed that w£ 
should all be dependent, one upon another, and that 
consequently we should submit our judgment to £hat 
of those wrjom He has placed over us. 



Maxims of the Novitiate. 137 

IIL 

be faithful: 

1st. To your rule. 

For it is the most powerful means of sanctification 
in a community : the one which gives value to all the 
other means, the one which is most calculated to 
maintain your peace of soul. For in a community we 
only receive grace in proportion as we are faithful to 
the rule. 

2d. To the smallest little practices of the community. 

For they emanate from a Superior who had a right to 
establish them, for which reason they come under the 
head of obedience. For, according to the Gospel, he 
who is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also 
in that which is greater. 

3d. To the inspirations of grace. 
For these inspirations are special lights which God 
gives us to enlighten us in particular cases. For by 
repelling them we expose ourselves to be deprived 
of them in future; we resist the Holy Spirit and offer 
an insult to God. 

IV. 

ENDEAVOR : 

1st. To live in the presence of God. 
For this presence will make you avoid sin, support 



13s Maxims of the Novitiate. 

you in temptation, cheer you in discouragement, rouse 
you in weakness, stimulate you in labor. 

2d. Have a spirit of faith. 

For it is the. means of giving our actions, even the 
most trifling, even the unsuccessful ones, a true value 
for heaven. Without this spirit our most brilliant 
actions will be counted as nothing before the tribunal 
of God. 

3d. To meditate well. 

For it is in meditation that the soul gathers strength 
to labor for the glory of God ; it is in meditation that 
the soul clearly sees God's will in its regard; it is the 
exercise of the angels, and the souls who apply them- 
selves to it end by leading a life conformable to that 
of the Angels. 



avoid: 

1st. Murmurs. 
For they gradually destroy the spirit of submission, 
accustom you to live in independence and discontent, 
and prevent you from relishing the joys of community 
life. They take away the respect due to superiors, 
frequently do irreparable evil, and sooner or later are 
severely punished by God. 



Maxims of the Novitiate. 139 

2d. Ridicule, 

For it is opposed to the spirit of charity ; it some- 
times causes wounds impossible to heal, and has been 
the cause of several lost vocations. It nourishes vanity 
in the heart of him who practises it, insensibly leads 
him to believe himself above others, and deprives him 
of the secret communications of grace. 

3d. Particular friendships . 
For they destroy the family spirit which should 
reign in a community: they enervate the heart, wither 
the soul, weaken devotion, incline us to avoid the eyes 
of our superiors and gradually lead to sensuality. 

GOD WISHES : 

That we should obey without a word, 
That we should labor assiduously, 
That we should be silent without pouting, 
That we should be modest and habitually cheerful, 
That we should seek every occasion to be useful 
and to give pleasure, 

That we should banish every thought which is dis- 
turbing or a loss of time to us, 

That we should have recourse to Him as soon as 
we have committed a fault. 

rejoice: 
If you are unknown and forgotten, 



140 Maxims of the Novitiate. 

If you possess few natural gifts of mind or body, 

If you are neglected, 

If you are given the lowest employment, 

If you are not made useful, 

If your advice is never asked, 

If ihere is no confidence placed in you, 

If you are assigned the last place, 

If you are never complimented, 

If aH others are preferred to you. 



YOU WILL BECOME A GREAT SAINT : 

If you are tenacious of nothing, 
If you love abandonment, 
If you suffer in silence, 

If you accept all that God sends you, or permits to 
be done to you. 



THE RELIGIOUS WHO WILL NEVER BE PERFECT «IS: 

She who excuses herself; 

She who murmurs and finds fault with everything ; 

She who complains of the food; 

She who ridicules others ; 

She who is indifferent about little things; 

She who evades the vigilance of her superiors. 



Maxims of the Novitiate, 141 

Two things of which one must never complain: 
clothes or food. 

* 

Two persons whom one must never criticise : the 
superior and the confessor. 

* 

Two prayers which one should frequently repeat: 
My God, let me be neither curious or talkative. 



Two virtues which one must constantly practise : 
obedience and humility. 

« 

Two actions for which one must be always ready : to 
Communicate, to die. 



THE SEVEN CAPITAL SINS OF A RELIGIOUS. 

Disobedience, 

Irregularity, 

Neglect of silence, 

Criticisms and murmurs, 

Particular friendships, 

Jealousy, 

Antipathies and rudeness. 



142 Maxims of the Novitiate. 

MEANS OF PERFECTION. 

In conduct. 

Even temper, — uprightness, — modesty, — prudence, 
— gentleness, — firmness. 

In conversation. 
Gaiety free from frivolity, — reserve in words,-~ 
forgetfulness of self,— deference to others. 

In frequenting the sacraments. 
Purity of heart,— purity of intention, — detachment 
from sensible consolation, — lively faith, — practical 
fervor. 

In failings. 

Humble and sincere acknowledgment, — deep sor- 
row free from dejection, — immediate recourse to God, 
— abandoning oneself to His mercy, — expiation. 

With God. 

Filial confidence, — simple but affectionate study of 
His will, — peaceful waiting for His grace, — prompt 
and unreserved obedience to His inspirations. 

With one's superiors. 

Deep respect for God's sake, whose place they fill 
towards us, — simple, straightforward, entire obedi- 
ence, — unlimited confidence. 



Maxims of the Novitiate. 143 

- •-> With one's neighbor. 

Cordiality, — consideration, — forbearance, — compla- 
cency free from fawning,— deference free from flattery, 
— condescension free from human respect. 

With self. 

Severe modesty, — sincere humility, — unremitting 
mortification, — patience with every trial. 

For the mind. 

Wise distrust of its lights, — happy ignorance of its 
merits, — holy use of its talents. 

For the heart. 
Fidelity in banishing every kind of trouble, — vigi- 
lance over all its movements, — sacrifice of its inclina- 
tions, — victory over its repugnances. 

For the imagination. 

Unalterable tranquillity in its wanderings, — con- 
tempt of its whimsical creations, — skillful evasion of 
its importunities. 

For the body. 

Moderate care,— discreet rigor, — general sobriety. 

In one's sentiments. 
Conformity with those of Jesus, — continual and 
entire dependence on the good pleasure of Jesus for 
health, sickness, success, contempt, life, death. 



144 Maxims of the Novitiate. 

THE SOUL FAITHFUL TO ADOPT THESE MEANS \ 

Will delight God; 

Will herself enjoy God ; 

Will find unalterable peace in God ; 

Will assure herself the eternal possession of God. 



A GOOD RELIGIOUS SHOULD ASK OF GOD: 

More humility than humiliations ; 

More patience than suffering ; 

More good will than works ; 

More love than actions ; 

More detachment from all than abandonment by all ; 

More obedience than commands ; 

More works than words; 

More devotion to sanctity than to health. 



A GOOD RELIGIOUS SHOULD BE INDIFFERENT: 

To every kind of place and employment; 

To every kind of cross and suffering; 

To every kind of treatment on the part of creatures; 

To their remembrance and their neglect; 

To their esteem and their contempt; 

To their affection and their aversion; 

To every kind of treatment on the part of God \ 

To light and to darkness ; 



Maxims of the Novitiate. 145 

To consolation and to spiritual dryness ; 
To repose and to labor ; 
To health and to sickness ; 
To life and to death. 



TWELVE IMPORTANT MAXIMS. 

To always have God in view and God alone, for 
after all it is God alone who will judge us. 



To regard and accept every humiliation, every 
affliction, every suffering, as a portion of the cross 
of Jesus, and as a drop from His chalice. God sends 
them to us, to make us share in His merits. 



Never to speak of self, never to be occupied with 
self; God is occupied for us, — is not that sufficient? 



To suffer everything on the part of others, and never 
to voluntarily cause ihem suffering. 



To do everything for others, and exact nothing for 
self. To accept with gratitude all that is done for us. 



146 Maxims of the Novitiate. 

To keep one's eyes ever closed to the defects of 
others and open to their virtues, excusing all that seems 
unfavorable. 

Never to excuse oneself even though unjustly 
reproved. . • what does it matter before God ? 



To ask nothing, to refuse nothing ; to rely upon 
God for everything. 

Never to allow oneself to judge, or even to examine 
the conduct of one's superiors or confessor. 

* 

To be solely occupied with one's own duty, never 
with that of others. Before God, each one works for 
himself, — each one renders an account of what he 
has to do. 

To regard creatures, whatever they may be, as sent 
to us from God : some as a means of merit, others as a 
means of expiation. 



To believe oneself the last in a community, and in 
all things to unaffectedly seek the place which no onet 
cares for. 



Maxims of the Novitiate. 147 

A FERVENT RELIGIOUS: 

Listens with docility to 
Readings, counsels, reproofs; 

Is faithful to be 
Respectful, obedient, punctual; 

Lives in charity with 

Her equals, her inferiors, those who do not like 
her, those who cause her suffering ; 

• Yields with humility 
To her equals, to her inferiors; 

Bears benignly 

The trials which God sends her, those which spring 
from her family, her employment, her health, her 
want of success. 

Labors assiduously 

Even though the labor be distasteful to her — seems 
useless, is to afford her no satisfaction. 



PORTRAIT OF A GOOD NOVICE. 

She thanks God that she has had the courage to 
leave all to enter religion. 



148 Maxims of the Novitiate. 

She is convinced that during all her religious life 
she will be what she has been during her Novitiate, 

* 
She doubtless thinks of her family, but only to 
recommend them to God. 

* 
She makes every effort to faithfully fulfill the rule in 
every point, feeling that there only lies her perfection. 

She is fervent at prayers, charitable to her sisters, 
interiorly recollected, outwardly modest. 

* 

She regards violation of silence as a fault capable 
of most serious consequences. 

* 
When the rule seems hard to her, she thinks of her 
past sins, of God's holy will, and then she patiently 
bears it, she loves it, and applies herself to the strict 
observance of it. 

When she is reproved for her faults, and when she 
is humiliated, she does not excuse herself, but, after 
expressing her gratitude, is silent and endeavors to 
do better. 



Maxims of the Novitiate. 149 

She has perfect confidence in her mistress, and in 
him who directs her conscience; she regards them as 
taking God's place to her. 

* 
She is very careful not to neglect little things, 
persuaded that their observance is a proof of her love 
for God, and will draw upon her great graces. 

* 

Humility is her support, 

Prayer her consolation, 

Obedience her guide, 

Vocation her study, 

The cross her master, 

Examination of conscience her book, 

Meditation her food, 

Communion her joy and her strength, 

Mary is her Mother, 

St. Joseph and her good Angel are her protectors. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE WORK OF THE NOVITIATE. 

The end of the Novitiate being to prepare 
the soul and form it for a religious life, we may 
consider the Novitiate : 

ist. As a mould in which the soul is trans- 
formed, stripped so to speak of worldly prin- 
ciples, and assumes divine. 

I his transformation exacts a labor which is 
sometimes rude : it is not without effort and 
self-denial, that one acquires the virtues we 
have indicated, and casting aside natural defects 
becomes obedient, humble, charitable, simple, 
mortified. 

This work is gradually effected by prayer, 
by meditation aided by direction, and trials of 
which we will speak later. 

2d. The Novitiate may also be considered 
as a school in which the novice learns, theoreti- 
cally and practically, the principles, at least, 
of that knowledge which she will need later, 
to correspond to her vocation. 



The work of the Novitiate. 151 

Now in every Novitiate there are two kinds 
of studies. 

The first relate to the end of the order or 
community. You understand, for example, 
that novices destined to care for the sick receive 
different instruction from that given to those 
destined for a contemplative life or for the edu- 
cation of youth. 

We need not occupy ourselves with these 
instructions, the directories proper to each house 
sufficiently indicate them. 

The second kind of study, common to all 
novitiates, consists in learning the obligations of 
the religious state which the novice is about to 
embrace, and the principles, at least, of the 
interior life, which must be the life of those 
who consecrate themselves to God. 

To facilitate this study we are about to state 
briefly, doubtless, yet in a manner to afford 
sufficient knowledge, what is necessary to know 
of the religious state and the interior life. 

May not a special and profound study of 
christian doctrine be one of the duties in 
novitiates ? 

How many young girls wish to give them- 



152 The work of the Novitiate. 

selves to God with a generous soul and devoted 
heart, and yet have a very superficial religious 
instruction? And they are sometimes those 
who in the world have received the most 
brilliant education. 

" If there is one thing which at times deeply 
saddens and alarms me for the eternal salvation 
of souls/' says Bishop Dupanloup, " it is to see 
how little people know and what little trouble 
they take to learn their religion. . . At the 
present day there is a deplorable ignorance 
of religious matters among us. How many 
times have I not encountered, even among 
men otherwise well instructed — even among 
practical christians, veritable depths of igno- 
rance in this respect ! 

" They are frequently ignorant of all their 
religion; they know nothing, or almost nothing, 
of its teachings — sometimes the most essen- 
tial ; nothing of its laws, its liturgy, its proofs ; 
nothing of its rights, of its action in the world ; 
almost nothing of its origin, its history, even of 
the history of Christ ; they do not comprehend 
its most apparent interests ; they are incapable 
of serving them and defending them." They 



The work of the Novitiate. 1 5 3 

have a certain taste for piety, they practise 
certain devotions, they know the current things 
of religion, and they are satisfied ; giving them- 
selves up to ascetic reading without realizing 
the need they have to strengthen and justify 
their faith. 

Then let not the novice feel humiliated in 
the Novitiate if she is made to read a catechism 
which is a development of what she knows by 
heart perhaps, but upon which she has reflect- 
ed little. " People, generally," says Bishop 
Dupanloup, "have a very poor knowledge 
of the catechism and the gospel, and, con- 
sequently, of their religion." 

The religious who teach will of course make 
it a strict duty to prepare their religious instruc- 
tions; but they should read in public either the 
Catechism of Perseverance, or that of Guillois, 
Rodez, Bourges, Challoners Christian Instructed, 
Powers' Doctrinal, Moral, Historical and Lit- 
urgical Catechism, or, better still, the Catechism 
of the Council of Trent. 



154 The work of the Novitiate. 

FIRST. 

SUMMARY OF A TREATISE ON THE 
RELIGIOUS STATE * 

I. 

NATURE OF THE RELIGIOUS STATE. 

I st. The religious state is a fixed state of 
community life under one rule approved by 
the Church ; a state in which souls who aspire 
to perfection consecrate themselves to God by 
the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, 
and the observance of a common rule. 

2d. A bishop, in his diocese, may, accord- 
ing to a custom known and permitted by the 
Holy See, approve a religious community, at 
least provisionally, and authorize in it the three 

* We do not pretend to give, in these few pages, a 
complete treatise of the religious state, but simply to 
teach the novice what it most concerns her to know of 
the state she wishes to embrace. 

The authors we have specially consulted and fol- 
lowed are: Father Gautrelet's Treatise on the religious 
state, — Fabre's Catechism of the religious life, — Crais- 
son's Manual of Canon Law. 



The work of the Novitiate, 155 

vows ; but this does not constitute such a 
community a religious order, properly speaking. 
3d. Though the rule be approved by the 
Holy See the community is not even then a 
religious order; it is further necessary that the 
vows be perpetual and recognized as solemn by 
the Sovereign Pontiff. It is this express recog- 
nition of solemn vows which constitutes a reli- 
gious order. The Sovereign Pontiff could, at 
the same time, grant the title and privileges 
of a religious order \ properly so called, to a con- 
gregation which takes only simple vows. Thus, 
by a decree of Pius VII. and Gregory XVI. , the 
religious of France, though they do not take 
solemn vows like their sisters established else- 
where, receive the indulgences attached to the 
order the rules of which they follow.* 

*As every Frenchman is legally competent to in- 
herit, make over, and will property, it has been con- 
cluded that a solemn vow of poverty no longer exists 
in France, (since a solemn vow makes null and void 
every act, every contract opposed to it,) nor are there, 
consequently, the other solemn vows, inasmuch ss 
the three religious vows are not solemn unless taken 
conjointly. . . But as the solemnity of vows is wholly 
of ecclesiastic institution, and may, up to the present 



i"56 The work of the Novitiate. 

The end of the religious state is to tend 
towards perfection, by the exact observance 
not only of the com?nandments of God and the 
Church, but still more of the evangelical counsels. 
This tending towards perfection is the end of 
every religious body, and the reason of all the 
obligations which it imposes on its members. 
To be holy and perfect is the portion of the 
blessed in heaven ; to wish to be saved and to do 
what is absolutely necessary for that purpose is 
the condition of the simple Christian ; to aspire 
and tend towards perfection, is the characteristic 
of a religious. 

The means of attaining perfection is the 
practice of the three evangelical counsels — 
poverty, chastity, and obedience. 

moment, be dispensed with by the Pope on the re- 
quisite conditions, all we need do, to assure ourselves 
whether a vow is solemn, is to discover the opinion of 
the Pope in regard to it. Now it appears : 1st, that 
the vows of religious women in France are not solemn, 
but that they enjoy the same spiritual favors as if they 
were ; 2d, that it is not the same with the vows of men 
in religion, which are solemn, — at least for the greater 
number. Conferences of Puy IV m 



The work of the Novitiate. 157 

Voluntary poverty is the first disposition 
Jesus requires of those seeking perfection. If 
thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou had and 
give it to the poor, and follow me. 

Chastity, freeing one from the cares of a 
family, renders the practice of poverty easier; 
moreover, it raises the soul above sensual 
things, and enables the heart to attach itself 
to God alone. 

Obedience submits the will to a superior and 
permits him to command all that he judges 
necessary to perfection. Hence, certain re- 
ligious orders, the Benedictines for example, do 
not explicitly take any vow but that of obedience, 
which implicitly contains the two others. 

To be truly religious ; those who give them- 
selves up to the practice of the evangelical 
counsels, must be bound to their observance 
by a vow made in a community. Without 
this bond they would remain free to tend 
towards perfection or not ; and this liberty is 
incompatible with what is called a stale, which 
indicates something permanent. 

These vows are perpetual in religious orders, 
properly so called ; they may at first be only 



158 The work of the Novitiate. 

temporary in religious congregations, * but it 
is necessary that they be perpetual to make a 
real profession, in the strict sense of the word. 
P. Gautrelet 1, 112. 

These vows should be made according to a 
rule which determines their matter and practice. 
In canonical law the rule, or rather the rules, in- 
dicate the manner in which the vows of poverty 
chastity, and obedience, should be understood 

* We comprehend, under the name of Religious con- 
gregations, says F. Gautrelet, every institute in which 
the members engage themselves to tend towards per- 
fection by the practice of simple vows admitted as 
such by the superior, who thus reserves to himself the 
power of dispensing them. 

The proper characteristic of these congregations, and 
that which essentially distinguishes them from religious 
orders, is the nature of the vows they take. These 
vows are simple, and not solemn . There is doubtless 
in the person, who makes them without limiting their 
duration, a desire to engage herself forever as far as 
she is able; the obligation which she assumes may well 
be for her absolute and irrevocable, in the sense that 
she cannot, without sin, unless for a just cause, wish to 
recover the liberty which she has voluntarily sacrificed; 
but the institution, or its first superior, retains the power 
to break these bonds when they may become detri- 



The work of the Novitiate. 159 

and practised. St. Augustine and St. Benedict 
have each drawn up rules, which are approved 
by the church, and those of one or the other 
saint are substantially adopted by all congrega- 
tions which wish to receive the approbation of 
the Holy See. 

To these rules are added the constitutions, 
which indicate in a special manner, according 

mental to the congregation or the individual, and can 
for grave reasons dispense them. 

It follows from this: 1st, that all obligation attached 
to solemn vwws % precisely because they arc solemn, is 
not attached to vows taken in religious congregations. 

2d. That as much must be said of the effects at- 
tached to religious profession, properly so called, unless 
by concession of the Sovereign Pontiff the communi- 
ties enjoy the privileges of religious orders. 

The appellation, religious orders^ which canonists do 
not give to congregations taking simple vows, does 
not prevent the members of those congregations (both 
men and women) from being and receiving the title 
of religious in the ordinary meaning of the word, the 
essence of the religious life being the taking of the 
three vows. — Craisson, 2517, — Gautrelet, I, 127. 

In canonical language alone is the name oi religious, 
in the proper sense of the word, applied only to mem- 
bers of those orders which take solemn vows. 



160 The work of the Novitiate. 

to the end of each congregation, how its 
members may by means of these rules attain 
perfection. 

In ordinary language, which is not precise 
like canonical language, the two words, rules 
and constitutions, are used indiscriminately to 
express the same thing. 

In ordinary language, again, a religious, by 
the word regulation or rule, does not understand 
the fundamental rules which make her a mem- 
ber of a religious congregation, but simply the 
special different points of the rule which do 
not leave her free to act according to her own 
views, and which can be changed according 
to time and place. 

The approbation of the bishop of the diocese 
suffices for the rules and constitutions of religious 
congregations. The bishop is then the first 
superior in whom is vested all authority. 

The Sovereign Pontiff's approbation, being 
asked and received, does not of itself confer 
upon these communities the character and 
nature of religious orders. The approbation 
has the effect : ist, of giving more authority to 
the rule; 2d, of authorizing the congregation 



The work of the Novitiate. 161 

to establish itself in every part of the church 
with the consent of the Ordinary ; 3d, of pre- 
venting the end of the congregation, its means 
for attaining it, and its approved constitution, 
from being changed or modified by an inferior 
authority; 4th, of obliging the congregation 
to have recourse to the Holy See when any 
unforeseen question of importance arises in its 
government. — P. Cotel. 

When the approbation of the Holy See is 
solicited, the Sovereign Pontiff, after being 
assured by the bishop of the diocese, that the 
rules have been observed with edification dur- 
ing a certain number of years, gives first what 
is called a decree of approbation ; later, after 
examination he approves the institute in its 
fundamental points and institutes it, by apos- 
tolic authority ; or he may, at the same time, 
examine and approve its special constitution or 
body of rules. 



1 62 The work of the Novitiate. 

II. 

CONDITIONS REQUISITE FOR ENTERING RELIGION. 

Two conditions are required to enter religion: 
vocation, —fidelity to this vocation. * 

Vocation, which means a call from God, is 
generally recognized : 

1st. By a fitness; that is, a disposition of mind 
and body to comprehend the obligations of 
the state, and endure its labors and fatigues. 

2d. By an attraction ; that is, a feeling, be it 

* If there be states which require a special vocation, 
they are those of the priesthood and the religious life. 
The important duties of the one and the other cannot 
be fulfilled without special grace, and this grace God 
does not give to those who take upon themselves to 
enter a state to which He does not call them. 

Those vocations of which God is not the author have 
the most deplorable results in the cloister; their sub- 
jects perceive only the cross and never feel the unction 
which alone could lessen its weight. Love has nothing 
to do with their observance of the rules ; fear, and pure- 
ly human fear, is their only motive for observing 
them. They are delighted when they can transgress 
them with impunity, and still more so when they can 
gather accomplices in their transgressions. — Collet. 



The work of the Novitiate. 163 

instinctive or be it the result of reason, which 
leads the will to choose the religious rather 
than the secular life. 

This sentiment may arise from a supernatural 
motive, or even from a purely natural motive. 

This last, if it be confided to a prudent di- 
rector, if it lead the soul to become more pious, 
more retired from the world, more devoted to 
its duty, and if it persevere, may be a direct 
call from God. 

The supernatural motives may be : disgust 
with the world, though we have met with no 
disappointment ; the desire of doing penance 
and expiating past faults ; the desire of gaining 
heaven more surely ; the happiness of living 
in a community, sheltered from the dangers 
of the world and the occasions of sin ; the 
certainty of doing the will of God in all things 
by obedience ; the desire of being more pleas- 
ing to God — to give ourselves to Him in grati- 
tude for the benefits He has bestowed upon 
us and the love He bears us ; zeal for the 
salvation of souls. 

The natural motives may be : a great hu- 
miliation from which one desires to escape, 



164 The work of the Novitiate. 

vexation at not having succeeded in an institu- 
tion, or an enterprise. . ♦ God frequently 
makes use of such causes to lead souls to 
Himself.* 

Other motives, such as the ambition to be 
more respected in a religious habit, the hope 

*"We should not be disquieted/' says St. Francis of 
Sales, " as to whence the first inclination to a religious 
life comes, for our Lord has several ways of calling 
His servants: 

" Sometimes He makes use of preaching, sometimes 
of good books. 

44 Some are called through the words of the Gospel; 
others in the midst of the afflictions, the deceptions, 
the cares of the world, find a motive which determines 
them to leave it. Though the latter come to God in. 
disgust and vexation with the world, nevertheless they 
give themselves with a full and entire will to God; 
and frequently they become more perfect, and more 
holy than those whose vocation has been more ap- 
parent. Thus, a certain nobleman having mounted a 
superb horse, with the design of parading his fine 
appearance, was thrown from his horse into a ditch 
whence he arose covered with mud and dirt. This 
accident caused him so much confusion that he in- 
stantly resolved to enter religion where he led one of 
the holiest lives, and yet his vocation came from a 



The work of the Novitiate. 165 

of holding an honorable office in the com- 
munity and of enjoying more ease, etc., being 
bad in themselves can never become good ; and 
if we embrace the religious state with such 
motives we may expect remorse and tortures of 
conscience, which will only cease after a very 
long and sometimes very hard penance. 

Salvation is doubtless not impossible for 
the soul which has entered religion without a 
vocation; but it is very difficult, and requires 
on its part rigid obedience to the director to 
whom it has confided its fault. 

The marks that an attraction for the religious 
life comes from God, are : constancy in spite of 
obstacles ; peace of soul in spite of exterior op- 
position and the repugnances of nature; a life 
more pure, more submissive, more faithful to 
every duty. 

Whatever be the motives which impel one to 
the religious life, it is necessary : 

1st. To expose them simply to an enlight- 
ened director, who is unprejudiced, free from 
every human consideration in his judgment, 
full of esteem for the religious life, and, if 
possible, having some experience of it him- 



1 66 The work of the Novitiate. 

self; if the confessor have these qualities, the 
grace of his state particularly fits him for 
discerning a vocation. 

2d. To pray well; for entering religion is not 
a temporal affair in which we may be more 
or less wisely guided by human prudence 
alone, but an affair of spiritual, supernatural, 
and eternal interest, and of such importance 
that to avoid the risk of being mistaken we 
must make use of every supernatural means 
which Providence deigns to place at our dis- 
position. — Fabre. 



III. 



THE ORDINARY MARKS OF A DIVINE VOCATION FOR 
THE RELIGIOUS STATE. 

1st Mark. The wish to leave the world and 
embrace the religious life, impelled by a sincere 
desire to make ones salvation more secure. 
This mark becomes stronger when there is 
added to it a desire to labor for the glory of 
God by cooperating more efficaciously and 
more directly in the salvation of souls. 

2d Mark. The desire to aspire to perfection 



The work of the Novitiate. 167 

by embracing the evangelical counsels which 
Jesus offers as a means of attaining it, and 
the desire of being more intimately united with 
Jesus Christ. 

3d Mark. The desire to sacrifice to Jesus 
Christ, be it to make ourselves more pleasing 
to Him or in gratitude for His benefits, our 
life, our members, our heart, our entire will. 

4lh Mark. To be attracted, but calmly 
and quietly, by the spiritual advantages of the 
religious life, where, according to St. Bernard, 
"one lives more purely, falls more rarely, 
rises more promptly, receives grace more 
abundantly, dies more holily, is rewarded 
more largely." 

^th Mark. To feel a very decided antipathy 
for marriage, even though we may be unable 
to assign a cause for it, and be determined to 
live a life of celibacy. 

6th Mark. To be inclined to the relig- 
ious life instinctively, as it were, and not through 
enthusiam, sentiment, or expediency, nor affec- 
tion for one whom we are to find there; and this 
inclination should have existed for a certain 
time without being either destroyed or shaken 



168 The work of the Novitiate. 

by the knowledge of the sufferings and trials of 
the life, nor the reasons which may be alleged 
to turn us from it, nor even the rebuffs we 
may have received on the subject. 

fth Mark. To always return to the thought 
of a religious life in spite of moments of trial 
and terrible crisis through which God permits 
us to pass, and during which it seems as though 
we would abandon all. In the life of souls 
seriously called to the religious life, there are 
sometimes moments of terrible crisis. " My 
soul," says St. Theresa, " experienced a mys- 
terious agony when I left my father. " — At 
such times it seems as though God does not 
wish us; that the separation we are meditating 
is impossible ; that every thing within us and about 
us rebels. . . . Let these bitter hours pass, and 
let us await the return of calmness and reason 
to make our decision. 

Slh Mark. An interior conviction that God 
calls us to the religious life, that He asks this 
sacrifice of us ; that our salvation and that of 
our parents is attached to it. 

glh Mark. An almost certain assurance that 
our health will be able to endure the fatigues 



The work of the Novitiate. 169 

to which we look forward, that the life is not 
too much opposed to our tastes, and that it 
will even afford us a work conformable to our 
acquirements and character. 

\oth Mark : and the most impo7'tant. The 
assent of a prudent director to whom we have 
made known our soul, — to whose questions we 
have replied with simplicity, — to whom we have 
been submissive in the different trials by which 
he thought proper to test us, and whom we 
have not sought to influence in any way. 

Remarks : 1st. It is not necessary that all 
the marks which we have just mentioned should 
be found, at the same time, in one person ; the 
more numerous, however, the marks are, the 
more certainty there is of a religious vocation. 

2d. Religious vocation is a personal affair 
which should be treated of in meditation 
between God and the soul. The director or 
confessor interposes solely to indicate what is to 
be done, — to examine the motives which in- 
fluence the soul, — to follow the voice of grace. 
After he has helped the soul by his counsels, 
enlightened it by the lights he has received, he 
must leave it perfectly free. 



170 The work of the Novitiate. 

IV. 

THE OBLIGATION OF FOLLOWING OUR VOCATION. 

Generally speaking, we are not obliged, un- 
der pain of grave sin, to embrace the religious 
state, since this state is only of counsel; but 
to resist a call from God, confirmed by our 
director and our conscience, is to prepare for 
ourselves a life of remorse, trouble and anxiety; 
it is, above all, greatly risking our salvation. * 

Parents who formally oppose an acknowl- 
edged vocation in their children, and prevent 
them from entering the religious life, sin mor- 
tally; and when there is question of a daughter 

* St. Liguori adds : "When a person is persuaded 
that she will be damned in the world, whether on 
account of her weakness in the midst of dangerous 
occasions, or for want of the powerful aids which 
heaven has prepared for her in religion, she can not 
be excused, under pain of mortal sin, if freely, of her 
own accord, she risks her salvation by refusing to 
follow her vocation. " 

"Even though there may be no sin," says Lessius, 
"in not following one's vocation, this resistance to 
grace is frequently the beginning of many disorders, 
and a first step in the way of perdition." 



The ivork of the Novitiate, 1 7 1 

are threatened with excommunication by the- 
council of Trent. Parents may doubtless ex- 
amine and prudently test the vocation of their 
children, but the trial should last no longer 
than is reasonably necessary. The weak faith 
of parents, their unreasonable opposition, their 
too human attachment, authorize a child, if he 
be of age, to disregard the wishes of his family 
and enter a religious community. 

Excommunication is pronounced against 
all persons who would force a girl to enter a 
convent, to take the habit of a religious order, 
to make a religious profession ; and against all 
persons who, other than by entreaties, would 
prevent her from following her vocation. This 
penalty is not incurred when there is question 
of religious communities which take simple 
vows like the communities of women in France, 
but the fault would always be a serious one. 

V. 

THE CLOTHING. 

Before taking the veil a young girl should 
have passed in the community a longer or 



172 The work of the Novitiate. 

shorter time, fixed by the constitutions, to 
prepare herself for the Novitiate. During this 
time she receives the name of postulant, or 
aspirant. 

A postulant cannot take the veil in a re- 
ligious house : 

1st. If she have not received baptism and 
confirmation, (confirmation, however, is only 
necessary for her profession). 

2d. If she have not attained the age required 
by the Council of Trent. The church has 
not fixed upon any age for beginning the 
Novitiate ; she only forbids taking the veil 
before twelve, and making profession before 
the sixteenth year of one's age is completed. 

3d. If she have not been examined by the 
bishop or his delegate, who puts to her the 
prescribed questions. 

4th. If her parents are absolutely dependent 
upon her for subsistence, and if without her as- 
sistance they would be obliged to have recourse 
to public charity, or to go to a hospital to be 
cared for ; if she be necessary to her little 
brothers and sisters on account of their age. 

These are the general principles established 



The work of the Novitiate. 173 

by religious orders, and followed even by other 
communities. The rules of several institutes 
exact other conditions to which the novice 
should submit. 



VI. 

THE NOVITIATE. 

The Novitiate is a time when we prepare 
ourselves for the religious life, by practising 
and studying approved rules, that we may learn 
whether the community is suited to us, and 
in order that the community may discover 
whether we are suitable for their order. 

The Novitiate should last a complete year. 
This period should be strictly adhered to — 
even a few hours might prevent one from 
taking the vows. * The superior is free to 
prolong this period. 

* According to a decree of Pius IX., the novices of 
orders taking solemn vows should, for three or live 
years after their novitiate, take only temporary vows, 
and can not be admitted to pronounce solemn vows 
till after this second novitiate. — March 19th, 1857. 



174 The work of the Novitiate. 

In case of fatal illness the novice is admitted 
to her profession, whatever time has elapsed 
since her entrance provided she have completed 
her sixteenth year. This profession, however, 
does not bind the community to the novice 
like the profession made in its own proper time, 
and it should be renewed if the novice be 
restored to health. 

The Novitiate is not interrupted by an illness 
of several months, even when the time is pass- 
ed at home, nor by a somewhat prolonged stay, 
when it is sanctioned by permission, and its 
object is to be of service to one's family; but 
one day, spent away from the religious house 
without authority, unless detained by an insu- 
perable obstacle, obliges one to recommence 
the year. 

According to the Sacred Congregation, nov- 
ices of religious orders should be separated 
from the professed even during recreation. 
This wise measure is generally mentioned in 
the rules of communities taking simple vows. 

The novices are only obliged to give to the 
communities the money necessary to pay their 
expenses during the Novitiate. 



The work of the Novitiate. 175 
VII. 

THE OBLIGATIONS OF NOVICES. 

In regard to chastity a novice has no other 
obligations than those she had before entering 
the Novitiate. A greater abundance of grace, 
a more perfect knowledge of her duty, may 
render her sin more grave, but the nature of 
the sin is not changed. 

As regards poverty she has the same liberty 
about her personal possessions that she had 
before entering the Novitiate. This liberty is 
only restrained by the rule. She commits then 
a fault against the rule by disposing of any- 
thing without permission, but does not com- 
mit a fault against poverty. 

As regards the possessions of the community, 
she can appropriate nothing, and should only 
make use of what is assigned for her use ; if 
she fail in any way on this point, she commits 
a fault against justice, and may render herself 
guilty of sacrilege by perverting objects conse- 
crated to the service of God. (A sacrilege 
may not be a mortal sin, either on account of 



176 The work of the Novitiate. 

the want of intention, or the lightness of the 
matter.) 

As regards obedience, the novice is not strictly, 
and under pain of sin resulting directly from her 
act of self will, obliged to obey her superior 
nor the rule, because this obligation for re- 
ligious comes from the vow of obedience, and 
the promise contained in their profession; and 
a novice has made no vows. 

But disobedience may become a grave sin 
against charity : 1st, if it be a cause of scan- 
dal to your sisters, if it introduce laxity in 
the observance of the rules and a decline of 
discipline ; 2d, disobedience may become a 
more or less grave sin because it violates the 
tacit engagement which a novice makes, on 
entering the Novitiate, to observe the rules, to 
obey the superior, and to maintain good order. 
Whatever the reality or gravity of the fault which 
a novice may commit, she is obliged to undergo 
the penance which is imposed upon her for 
violation of the rules. 

A novice can leave during the time of the 
Novitiate without incurring any sin, provided 
she act with prudence ; generally, she should 



The work of the Novitiate. 177 

not do it without having consulted her supe- 
riors and obtained their assent. The novices 
are bound through charity, fidelity, and, I 
would almost say, justice, to offer the suffrages 
prescribed by the community for its benefactors 
and founders; as regards the suffrages pre- 
scribed for the deceased members of the com- 
munity there is a certain justice in acquitting 
oneself of them, since in case of our death the 
same would be done for us. 

VIII. 

THE PRIVILEGES OF NOVICES. 

The novices generally enjoy all the privileges 
granted to the community they have entered, 
and which are not attached to the religious 
profession or to the existence of vows. 

They participate in the indulgences and 
spiritual favors of the community, and are not 
bound during their Novitiate to accomplish the 
private vows which they may have made before 
their entrance, and which might be incompat- 
ible with the rule of the house. Such vows 
are then suspended. 



178 The work of the Novitiate. 

IX. 

I 

PROFESSION. 

Religious profession is a contract by which 
the novice in a congregation, approved by the 
Church, gives herself to God by formally mak- 
ing the three vows of poverty, chastity, and 
obedience, according to the rule and constitu- 
tions of the congregation. 

To make her profession, a novice is strictly 
bound : 1st, To be free and to act with the 
full consent of her will, under the authority of 
her superior who in the name of God accepts 
her consecration, and thus gives her the right 
to become a member of the congregation and 
share in all its advantages ; 2d, She must have 
completed her sixteenth year ; 3d, She must 
have made an entire year of Novitiate ; 4th, 
She must have contracted no engagement 
which still exists, whether it be in marriage or 
in another community the rule of which is 
more perfect. She must have no impediment 
contrary to the statutes of the order or the 
community. 



The work of the Novitiate. 179 

Religious profession renders one incapable 
of receiving the sacrament of marriage. 

This sacrament would be null if the vows 
were solemn, valid but sacrilegious if the vows 
were simple. It deprives one of all personal 
rights incompatible with the vows of poverty 
and obedience, according as they are made in 
the community. It places the religious in sub- 
jection to the rules and to her superiors. It 
imposes upon her the duty of observing the 
rules of the community after the manner in- 
dicated by these rules. It gives the community 
the right of directing all her actions through 
the authority of those persons charged with its 
government. 

The temporal punishment due to sin is re- 
mitted by profession in a religious order, or in a 
congregation the vows of which are simple but 
perpetual and to which the Holy Father may 
have granted the privileges of solemn vows. 
Profession permits the superior to commute the 
vows which a religious may have made before 
those of her profession.* — It renders a religious 

* The vows of religion whether simple or solemn are 
superior in power and extent to vows made in the 



180 The work of the Novitiate. 

sacred, (that is to say, anyone would incur ex- 
communication who would unjustly or seriously 
strike a religious,) even though, according to 
the common opinion of canonists, she belongs) 
but to a simple religious congregation approv- 
ed only by the Ordinary. 

It prevents a religious from leaving her 
community, without having obtained the au- 
thority which the Pope alone can grant when 
there is question of solemn vows, and even of 
simple but perpetual vows, when the communi- 
ty is approved by the Holy See, unless special 
powers are given to the bishop. The bishop 
of the diocese can grant permission to return 
to the world when the community is not 
approved by the Holy See. (Recourse must 
always be had to the Sovereign Pontiff for 
dispensation from the vow of perpetual chastity.) 

world, "for the religious vows," says St. Thomas, 
"eminently contain special vows." 

The religious vows put an end to the practices of 
associations in which one has been enrolled in the 
world, as well as to all practices other than those of 
the institute. — They render null any practices in relig- 
ion which are assumed without permission. — Leguay, 



The work of the Novitiate. 181 



VOWS. 

A vow is a deliberate promise made to God 
by which one engages himself for a thing which 
it is better to do than not to do. 

A private vow, that is, one made only between 
God and oneself binds only according to the 
will of him who makes it ; while a religious 
vow, that is to say, one made in a community 
for the purpose of becoming one of its members, 
binds according to the comprehension of the 
rules and constitutions of the community, — 
so that if a religious in pronouncing her vows 
were to make any reservation, whether mental 
or verbal, she would commit a sin, and would 
be no less obliged to fulfill the obligations 
imposed by the community. 

The vows of religion are either temporary, 
that is, for a certain fixed time; ox perpetual, 
that is, taken forever ; or simple, that is, pro- 
nounced in a congregation approved by the 
Church, but in which the vows are not declar- 
ed solemn by the Sovereign Pontiff ; or solemn, 



1 82 The work of the Novitiate. 

that is, approved and recognized as such by the 
Sovereign Pontiff. We see that it is the decla- 
ration of the Pope which alone renders the 
vows solemn. 

The solemnity of vows, together with some 
other special conditions of which we will speak 
in relation to the vows of poverty and chastity, 
renders dispensation from these vows excessively 
difficult. " The Sovereign Pontiff alone, and 
in extremely rare cases," says Gautrelet, "can 
pronounce them no longer binding." 

In communities of women in France, even 
though the rules are approved at Rome and 
the vows formerly were solemn, those of to-day 
are now only simple. (See Page IJJ 4 )* 

Though these communities are not religious 
orders they share nevertheless in all the in- 
dulgences of religious orders which take 
solemn vows, as we have already said. (See 

page I55-) 

One may be absolved by the bishop of the 
diocese, from perpetual vows taken in a sim- 
ple religious congregation, if its rules be not 
approved at Rome ; it is generally necessary 
to have recourse to the Pope if the rules be 

* This is true, also, of almost all the religious communities of 
women in the United States. 



The work of the Novitiate. 183 

approved at Rome, unless special powers be 
given to the Bishop.* 

As regards dispensation from the vow of per- 
petual chastity, recourse must always be had 
to the Sovereign Pontiff even though the rules 
have not been approved by the Holy See. 

Temporary vows only bind as long as they 
last. If one should desire to break them 
before their term of duration expires, he must 
follow the rules we have just given for perpet- 
ual vows. The violation of a vow is always of 
a grave nature, and can only be a venial sin 
from the lightness of the matter or lack of full 
consent. 

The accomplishment of an act done in 

* The decree of January 2d, 1836, which contains the 
question — Can the Ordinary, where there is sufficient 
reason, dispense the vows taken by religious, (of 
France) the vow of chastity remaining reserved? — 
replies that the Ordinary can dispense with them ; and 
does not specify whether the rules be approved or 
not by the Holy See. 

Mgr. Gousset also simply says: "In the present 
state of things vows, (of religious in France,) if we ex- 
cept that of chastity, cease to be reserved to the Sover- 
eign Pontiff. " 



1 84 The work of the Novitiate. 

virtue of a vow gives to the act a double merit. 
Thus an act of obedience, performed by a 
religious, has the merit of the act in itself, and 
the merit of the virtue of religion to which the 
vow belongs. For the same reason the viola- 
tion of a vow includes two sins : one against 
the commandment violated, the other against 
the vow. 

XL 

THE VOW AND THE VIRTUE OF POVERTY. 

The vow of poverty interdicts the right of pos- 
sessing and ceding; or if the right remain, the 
vow interdicts all acts of possession or cession. * 

A solejnn vow renders one incapable, even 
with the superior's permission, of personally 
possessing any goods whatever which are 
estimable in money, and of disposing, as 
master, of goods which are for her use. — A 

* It is not possible to say strictly what any particu- 
lar religious renounces by the vow of poverty, for 
this vow depends more or less on the severity of the 
rules of each institute. — It is necessary, then, to consult 
the rule of each house to be able to exactly state the 
extent of the vow which its members take. 



The work of the Novitiate. 185 

simple vow prevents one only from lawfully 
using or disposing of personal possessions 
without the express or tacit permission of the 
superior. — One's honor, reputation, one's 
writings, are not counted as temporal goods. * 



*Here are the declarations of the Holy See in 
regard to the practice of the vow of poverty in con- 
gregations which take only temporary vows : 

'* The vow of poverty does not take from a professed 
religious the power of preserving the simple proprie- 
torship of his temporal goods ; but it takes from him all 
right to administer these goods and to dispose of 
their fruits or revenues while he remains in the con- 
gregation. 

"That is why a sister, before taking her vows, 
should, even by a private act, cede the administration, 
use, and profits of said goods to whom she may please, 
and even to her own institute if she prefers. But the 
said cession will be of no effect if the sister leave the 
congregation. She may even add the clause that the 
said cession will be always and at all times revocable, 
even though she remain in the institute; at the same 
time as long as her vows last, she is interdicted from 
using, without the permission of the Holy See, the 
power which she thus reserves to herself. 

"The same rule should be observed in regard to 
goods which, after her profession, may come to her by 
right of inheritance. 



1 86 The work of the Novitiate. 

The matter of a vow of poverty, in a simple 
congregation, includes : 

All goods movable or immovable which do 
not belong to the religious ; all that a religious 
has given or ceded to the congregation: her 
trousseau, for example, and other gratuitous 
donations which she may have made, — (a nov- 
ice who leaves or is sent away, before making 
her vows, can take again all that she brought 
with her at her entrance, outside of the expenses 
of her maintenance). All the gifts she receives 
through alms, affection, or gratitude ; all the 
products of her industry, her labor, and her 
patrimonial possessions ; every act of propri- 
etorship in relation to her patrimonial posses- 
sions of which she can make no disposition 
without the permission of her superiors.* 

"As regards the domain of her possessions, she 
will have the power of disposing of it by testament, 
and of exercising on this subject, but with the per- 
mission of the superior, all the acts of proprietorship 
prescribed by the laws. — Cited by Father CoteL 

* To preserve the vow of poverty in France a reli- 
gious should be only nominally a property holder before 
the civil law; but the direction, employment, disposition, 



The work of the Novitiate. 187 

It follows from this : 

1st. That a religious can retain no sum of 
money, however small and trifling. 

2d. That she can receive no deposit oblig- 
ing her to be responsible if the object confided 
to her be destroyed, since such an act is a 
veritable contract. 

3d. That she can accept nothing in her 
own name, either from her parents, or her 
friends, or any person whatever, or under any 
title, either as a remuneration for services, or 
as a simple gift ; anything she receives in this 
way should be remitted to the superior who 
disposes of it as she judges proper. 

4 th. That she cannot give to the poor what 
she may retrench from her own food ; for what 
she does not consume belongs to the commu- 

of her revenues should be made in complete submis- 
sion to the will of her superiors. 

After having given the community the prescribed 
dowry, or portion, the religious is free to will her patri- 
monial possessions to whom she pleases. The superi- 
ors, to whom she should always submit her intentions, 
authorize this cession, which is indicated moreover by 
the different rules of the communities. 



1 88 The work of the Novitiate. 

ntty and not to her, unless a certain prescribed 
quantity of food is given her, with a clearly ex- 
pressed right to dispose of it in good works and 
without rendering an account of the surplus of 
what remains above her own necessities.* 

5th. That she cannot hide clothes, books, 
utensils, etc., which are assigned for her use, 
through fear that the superior will take them 
from her. 

6th. That she cannot, of her own accord, 
change with her sisters objects which have been 
given for her use. 

7th. That when she is charged to distribute 
any thing she cannot dispose of it in a manner 
contrary to the will and instructions of her su- 
perior. If she give more or less or something 
better or inferior, according to her taste or ca- 
price, she acts as proprietor ; this might happen 
on the part of the treasurer, the sister charged 
with the linen, the innrmarian, etc., who might 
allow themselves to be guided by sympathy 
or aversion. 

* A member of a community on a mission is permit- 
ted to give alms to the poor, and make certain pious 
little gifts. Superiors tacitly authorize this custom. 



The work of the Novitiate. 189 

8th. That she cannot injure, destroy or trans- 
form, objects which are given for her use and 
for a certain purpose. 

9th. That she cannot lend to others what 
she has received for her own use, unless when 
there is question of ordinary objects which 
every one needs, and which are, so to speak, 
public property of the community. In these 
little mutual loans, she must avoid the indiffer- 
ence of laxity as well as minutiae, or rudeness : 
when one sister asks something of another, 
charity should generally make one presume 
that she has permission. 

1 :th. That she cannot, without permission, 
renounce any legacy or inheritance, as such 
renunciation would be an act of proprietor- 
ship. 

" These decisions," says Bishop Bouvier, "ap- 
ply to the religious who are only bound by the 
simple vow of poverty, as well as to those whose 
vows may be solemn; with this difference, as 
we have already remarked, that any acts of the 
former, contrary to the vow of poverty, are 
illicit though valid, while those of the latter are 
both illicit and nulL 



1 90 The work of the Novitiate. 

Every permission which is valid, that is, given 
by those who have a right to grant it, and licit, 
that is, given for good reasons, saves one from 
a fault against poverty. 

A permission may be express or formal, 
given in a precise manner, either verbally or 
in writing. 

Tacit, that is, contained in a permission 
already given : for example, the permission to 
buy an object includes that of spending mon- 
ey ; a tacit permission may also be given even 
by the silence of the superior who permits 
that to be done which she could easily forbid. 

Special, that is, given for a single case. 

General, that is, either given to many for 
one case or to one individual for many cases. 

Presumed, that is, supposed to exist in the 
will of the superior, because we reasonably 
judge that it would be granted if asked ; this 
permission is only licit and valid in as far as 
there is necessity for acting, and difficulty in 
having recourse to the superior.* 

* A religious may meet with an unforeseen circum- 
stance which may be so urgent that it will not admit 
of delav. In this case if she cannot wait for the reply 



The work of the Novitiate. 191 

A superior cannot give irrevocable per- 
missions. 

A violation of the vow of poverty is always 
a more or less serious fault according to the 
matter. 

It is generally agreed that the matter which 
makes a child stealing from its parents guilty 
of a mortal sin of theft, suffices to constitute 
in a religious a mortal sin against the vow of 
poverty. 

The virtue of poverty extends much further 
than the vow, since it regulates even the desires 
of the heart and leads it to detach itself from 
all affection for temporal possessions. There- 
fore a religious may sin against the virtue of 
poverty even though she does not violate her 
vow. The vow empties the hands ; the virtue 
empties the heart. 

One may sin against the virtue of poverty 
even though the vow be unviolated, by regrets 



of her superior, and she, in good faith, thinks that her 
superior, present, would authorize what she is about 
'to do, should act accordingly, and afterwards relate 
what she has done. 



192 The work of the Novitiate. 

or desires contrary to this virtue : by an ill- 
regulated attachment to some object one is 
using, were it only a book, a rosary, (it is the 
affection which makes the sin, ) — by the use of 
superfluous objects, that is, those which are 
useless, or too costly or too elegant*. . etc. 

The virtue of poverty should be practised in 
the lodging, by not asking either the most con- 
venient or the best situated ; in the furniture 
of the cell, by having but what is sufficient, 
and desiring only a plain and simple kind ; in 
dress, by preserving it uniform, simple and 
neat ; in food, by asking only what is beneficial 
for health ; in journeys, by not making those 
which are not necessary or useful, and by not 
choosing, unless for a good reason, expensive 
modes of traveling ; in the employment of time, 
by not wasting it, and by employing it accord- 
ing to the rule ; in the presents which one is 

* It was to prevent these attachments for trifles 
which encumber the heart, that St. Francis of Sales 
wished that every year the religious of the Visitation 
should place their books, rosaries, crosses, medals, 
pictures in common, and that each of these objects 
should then be distributed to them by the superior. 



The work of the Novitiate. 193 

authorized to give, by not making them too 
expensive, and by seeking those which will 
benefit the soul. 

However, a sister who endeavors to faithfully 
follow the common life of the community rarely 
sins against the virtue of poverty. * 

XII. 

THE VOW AND THE VIRTUE OF CHASTITY. 

The vow of chastity imposes two obligations: 
1st. to renounce marriage ; 2d, to avoid every 
interior or exterior act already forbidden by the 
sixth and ninth commandment. 

This vow, as we have already said, can only 
be commuted by the Sovereign Pontiff, even 
in communities where the rules have not been 
approved by the Holy See. 

* The most frequent cause of sins against poverty is 
the use of the peculia. By this is meant a certain sum 
of money coming either from the private property of 
the religious or from gifts, and which, in some houses, 
a religious is free to use. It is an abuse which the 
superiors have a right to banish; happily, it does not 
reign to any extent in our communities. 



194 The work of the Novitiate. 

A grave sin against chastity, committed by a 
religious, is, first of all, a mortal sin against the 
sixth or ninth commandment ; then a sacrilege 
on account of the vow, and, if the fault is ex- 
terior, a scandal to the faithful; and a sin against 
charity, on account of the dishonor it brings 
upon the community. 

Sins against chastity may be : interior acts 
produced by desires, thoughts, memories \ represen- 
tations, too tender affections, sensual friendships ; or 
exterior acts, caused by too much liberty of the 
eyes in glances, in reading, in seeking what is 
dangerous or only sensual, — of the ears, by 
listening to what is unbecoming : to flatteries, 
suspicious compliments, expressions of too ten- 
der a nature, effeminate songs too sensual in 
their character, — of the tongue, by the use of 
equivocal words, indelicate expressions, by 
singing profane songs, etc., — of the hands, by 
indulging in games in which there is too much 
familiarity, in marks of sensual affection, in un- 
becoming actions. 

An act which may be venial in a person in 
the world may become a grave sin in a re- 
ligious, on account of the scandal it gives. 



The work of the Novitiate. 195 

The means for preserving intact the vow and 
virtue of chastity, are, —besides prayer, devotion 
to the Holy Eucharist and to the Blessed Virgin, — 
guarding the senses, and particularly that of 
sight, — avoiding idleness — flying all occasions 
the moment conscience warns that they are 
dangerous for us, — promptness in repelling 
temptation however light it may be, — carefully 
avoiding tender friendships, even those which 
seem to us the holiest, if they enervate the 
heart, — reserve in the most spiritual inter- 
courses, and moderation in the expressions 
of gratitude which the heart may suggest,* — 

* We may recognize by the following marks when 
an affection is too natural and becomes dangerous : 

1st. The material pleasure it affords us to remain 
with the person loved ; the pain we feel at leaving 
her. 

2d. The affectionate glances we direct toward her, 
even though she cannot see us. 

3d. The disquiet, discouragement, and want of 
energy in work which her absence causes us. 

4th. The jealousy we experience at seeing her loved 
by others. 

5th. The blindness which makes us find every thing 
perfect in her. 



196 The work of the Novitiate. 

temperance, — finally, great frankness with him 
who is charged with the direction of our soul. 
The virtue of chastity, which is the guardian 
of the vow of chastity, leads the religious to 
indulge moderately in permitted pleasures, and 
sometimes to even deprive herself of them, 
through a motive of mortification, when she 
can do so unperceived. 

Here are the precautions to be taken when we 
begin to experience these dangerous feelings: 

1st. Never to speak, without necessity, to the sister 
who is the object of this affection. 

2d. At recreation to let others take their places 
before choosing ours, — we will rarely be at her side. 

3d. Never to be voluntarily occupied with her, and 
to banish her memory as an importunate thought. 

4th. Never, doubtless, to refuse her any service, 
but to perform it with exterior and, more particularly, 
interior moderation. 

5th. To repress all emotion of joy which we may 
feel at seeing her after a more or less prolonged 
absence. 

6th. To make known to our confessor the efforts 
we are making. 



The work of the Novitiate, igj 
XIII. 

THE VOW AND THE VIRTUE OF OBEDIENCE. 

The vow of obedience is one by which a 
religious engages herself before God to obey 
her lawful superiors in all that they command 
according to the rule. 

The rule is the basis of the power of supe- 
riors ; they can command nothing contrary to 
the rule or outside the rule, but they can command 
all that is necessary for the exact observance of 
the rule, and also what it implicitly includes, 
such as penances for its transgressors, the manner 
of fulfilling its obligations, etc. 

When there is a doubt whether the command 
is against the rule, the inferior is obliged to 
obey unless recourse is had to a superior 
authority. 

The vow of obedience is the most excellent 
of the three vows ; it is the most necessary for 
the good of the community ; it is the most no- 
ble since it consecrates to God one's whole life 
and the most intimate faculties of the soul. The 
simple vow of obedience renders illicit, that is, 



198 The work of the Novitiate. 

culpable, every obligation contracted by a reli- 
gious without the consent of her superior, but 
does not of itself annul it ; the solemn vow, on 
the contrary, renders null every obligation 
contracted without permission. 

We sin mortally against the vow of obedience 
whenever we formally, and in a grave matter, 
disobey an order given in virtue of holy obedi- 
ence; when we obstinately and opinionatively 
resist the superior who commands; when our 
disobedience results in any serious injury to 
the community, or to ourselves, or to a third 
person. 

The rule, generally, does not in itself oblige 
under pain of sin, particularly when there is 
question of points of the rule; that is, articles 
which are not expressed in the obligations of 
vows ; " but one rarely violates the rules with- 
out sin," says St. Thomas, " on account of the 
motive which impels the violation. When 
one disobeys, it is really through pride, or self- 
indulgence, or laziness, or human respect, 
or some other motive which is always vicious. 
The sin can even become grave if one despises 
a point of the rule as coming from God." 



The work of the Novitiate. 199 

The habitual transgression of the rules 
becomes more culpable, on account of the 
scandal and laxity which it introduces into 
the community. 

Obedience is due, not only to the superior, 
when he speaks himself, but to all those who 
have received any authority from him, when 
what they command is within their province. 

The virtue of obedience requires that the 
interior should be in accord with the exterior 
act, while the vow, strictly speaking, exacts only 
the exterior act. 

The virtue of obedience to be perfect should 
be prompt : without delay — at once abandon 
what you are doing, even if you leave it un- 
finished; complete : accomplishing, to the least 
detail, the command which is given ; super- 
natural ; accomplished with a view to please 
God, and as a command from God ; absolute : 
without reasoning or objecting (it is permitted, 
however, to make to the superior representations 
which we consider just, but with respect, sin- 
cerity and submission) ; joyful ; with pleasure, 
moved by the thought that we are obeying 
God and gaining heaven; generous : without 



200 The work of the Novitiate. 

being troubled by the obstacles which arise, 
and the sacrifices which are to be made. 

Besides the direct faults against obedience, 
there are certain defects which wound it and 
prepare the soul for a formal violation. These 
are prejudices against superiors, antipathies, mur- 
murs, excuses, tardiness, etc. 

Other defects destroy all the merit of obedi- 
ence and render the soul culpable : such as 
obeying without submitting the will, and only as 
a matter of form ; obeying through fear, like a 
slave, and only because we are seen ; obeying 
through policy and self love, to win the good 
graces of the superior. "This is not an ex- 
ercise of virtue/' says St. Bernard, "but a cloak 
with which we hide our malice." 

XIV. 

THE CLOISTER. 

The laws of the Church concerning the 
cloister of religious who take solemn vows can- 
not apply in France where, as we have already 
said, all the religious (decree of Jan. 23d, 
182 1.) take only simple vows. 



The work of the Novitiate. 201 

The cloister, however, should be strictly ob- 
served after the manner prescribed by the rule, 
and its violation cannot but be a mortal sin in 
itself. It is so regarded by all cloistered reli- 
gious, and this opinion explains and justifies 
the care with which the cloister is observed in 
all fervent communities. 

11 There is nothing, in fact," says Father Gau- 
trelet, "which a religious should have so much 
at heart ; there is no point more important 
than the cloister, none the violation of which 
carries with it more inconveniences, and none, 
consequently, more necessary to be observed. 

"The bishop can oblige religious to observe 
the cloister, and it is even fitting that he should 
impose this obligation on all the religious of 
his diocese, that, in the language of the Sacred 
Penitentiary, sheltered from the world and its dan- 
gers, they may have more liberty to apply themselves 
to the service of God. It is understood that here 
there is no question of congregations where 
the nature of their institute and occupations 
requires that they should live in the world ; 
such as those, for example, which are devoted 
to the care of the sick." 



202 The work of the Novitiate. 

But neither religious leaving their convent, 
nor strangers entering into the cloister, with- 
out permission, incur the excommunication 
pronounced by canon law against violating the 
cloister of religious who take solemn vows. 
The bishop may have made this violation a 
reserved case in his diocese, and pronounced 
excommunication against it, which is then in- 
curred. 



XV. 

As it is absolutely impossible to determine, in 
a precise manner, the obligations proper to each 
one of the numerous congregations existing in 
the church, we limit ourselves to referring each 
of them to their own rules, the lawful customs 
which explain the rule, and, particularly, to the 
decision of the bishop in all doubtful cases. 
"It is," concludes Father Gautrelet, "the 
province of the oldest superior in the congre- 
gation to interpret the rules or dispense from 
them, and the church relies upon him in what 
concerns them." 



The work of the Novitiate. 203 



SECOND. 

SUMMARY OF A TREATISE ON THE 
INTERIOR LIFE.* 

L 

NATURE OF THE INTERIOR LIFE. 

The interior life is living constantly in the 
presence of God and in union with Him. It 
accustoms one to look upon the heart as a 
temple in which God dwells — sometimes glo- 
rious as in heaven, sometimes hidden as in the 
Eucharist; and it is in the presence of God 
that the soul thinks, speaks, acts, and accom- 
plishes all the duties imposed upon it. 

The end of the interior life is : to avoid sin 
— to be detached from temporal goods through 
a spirit of poverty, — from sensual pleasures by 
purity and mortification, — from pride, by hu- 
mility, — from natural advantages, by purity of 
intention, — from dissipation, by recollection. 

* From Golden Sands. 



204 The work of the Novitiate. 

We, generally, are prejudiced against the 
interior life. Some fear it, and look upon it as 
a life of bondage, of sacrifice and restraint ; 
others despise it as a collection of minute prac- 
tices calculated to cramp genius and render 
one useless in the world, and regard it as only 
fit for little minds. 

Therefore we are on our guard against it and 
avoid reading books which treat of it. 

Doubtless we wish to serve God, but we do not 
wish to subject ourselves to this continual de- 
pendence on the movement of His Spirit; so 
that it is less difficult to lead a soul from a state 
of mortal sin to a state of grace and the exterior 
practice of the christian virtues, than from this 
exterior virtue to the interior life. * 

* To form an exact idea of the interior life it is 
necessary to distinguish in the Christian: 

1st. The life of the senses, which is that of those per- 
sons who, indifferent to the thought of offending God, 
grant themselves every gratification ; and of those 
also, who, while unwilling to offend God grievously, 
will not deny their senses little enjoyments which are 
mere sensual satisfactions. 

2d. The life of reason, which is that guided by 
natural reason, independently of the lights which 



The work of the Novitiate. 205 
II. 

EXCELLENCE OF THE INTERIOR LIFE. 

It is the reign of God in souls ; it is the life 
of the Blessed Virgin on earth; that of Jesus 
Himself who lived always subject to his Father. 

It is the life of which St. Paul speaks when 
he says : // is no longer I who live, but Jesus 
Christ who liveth in me. 

All the saints live this life, and the degree 
of their sanctity is in proportion to the perfec- 
tion of their union with God. 

faith biings to the assistance of reason. This life is 
called in Holy Scripture human wisdom ; it is that of 
which St. Paul has said: The sensual man perceive th 
not these things that are of the spirit of God ; for it is 
foolishness to him and he cannot understand. It was 
in reference to it that Jesus said : / give thee thanks 
O Fat/ier, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast 
hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and 
hast revealed them to little ones. This is the life of 
respectable people, according to the world, philoso- 
phers, sages, who understand nothing of the stabie of 
Bethlehem, of the workshop of Nazareth, of the igno- 
minies of Calvary, of the beatitudes preached by 
Christ: who laugh at acts of humility and self-denial, 



2o6 The work of the Novitiate. 

As the soul animates their bodies, in like 
manner Jesus animates their souls. 

Jesus is their Master, their Counsellor, their 
Director, and they do nothing without con- 
sulting Him, without submitting it to Him, 
without begging His approval. Jesus Christ 
is their stay, their refuge, their defence. They 
live subject to Him, as to a father, a protector* 
an all-powerful king. 

They attach themselves to Him as a child 
through love, as a mendicant through want. 

They permit themselves to be guided by 



who cannot bear the reading of the lives of the saints, 
and whose only aim is glory, riches, ease. 

3d. The Supernatural life, that is, above reason and 
nature, which is illumined by the lights of faith and 
sustained by the reading of the Gospel, and which is 
practised by those whom we call saints. 

It is that of which we here speak, and which we 
call the interior life, because its principle is within us, 
whence it commands our senses and our reason. 

The 54th chapter of the 3d book of the Following 
of Christ, admirably describes the life of nature, and 
the life of grace, that is, the natural life and the super- 
natural life. 



The work of the Novitiate. 207 

Him, as a blind man permits himself to be 
guided by a child to whom he is confided. 

They bear everything from Him, as the sick 
who wish to be cured bear everything from the 
physician ; and they rest in Him like a child 
in its mother's arms. 

Therefore, they are gradually raised above 
the troubles and miseries of this life. Let the 
universe be a prey to all calamities : they them- 
selves, despoiled of their worldly goods by 
injustice or accident ; deprived of their families 
by death or exile, of their friends by treason 
or neglect ; of their reputation and their honor 
by calumny; of their health by the most cruel 
malady, even of joy by abandonment and temp- 
tation. . .ah! doubtless, they will feel these 
trials — their eyes no doubt flow with tears, but 
they will be calm and peaceful : and, beholding 
God in their hearts, who permits all, who with 
His own divine hand conducts all, they will 
say to Him with transports : Thou art left us 1 
Thou ! — we ask no more. 



208 The work of the Novitiate. 

III. 

ACTS OF THE INTERIOR LIFE. 

ist. To see God, — that is, to keep ourselves 
continually in His holy presence : to have Hirn 
near us in our work, our prayer, our walks, 
our repose, as a friend from whom we are never 
parted. God is not importunate ; He is not 
exacting: He is kind ; it is He who directs all : 
who proportions to our strength the trial which 
He sends, and which He knows is necessary 
for us. 

2d. To listen to God, — that is, to be attentive 
to His prohibitions, to His counsels : He speaks 
by the words of the Gospel which come back 
to our memory ; by the good thoughts which 
suddenly enlighten our mind ; by the pious 
words which we read in a book, a pamphlet, or 
which fall from the lips of a preacher, a friend, 
or sometimes even a stranger. 

3d. 7o speak to God, — that is, to converse 
with Him rather with the heart than the 
lips: by the morning meditation, ejaculatory 
and vocal prayer, and by a holy repose of 



The work of the Novitiate. 209 

heart, particularly when we have the happiness 
of visiting Him in the most Blessed Sacrament. 

4 th. To love God, — that is, to attach our- 
selves to Him and to Him alone ; to love 
others only in union with Him ; not to desire 
or accept any affection which can weaken His ; 
to lend ourselves to all through love for Him, 
but to give ourselves to Him alone. 

5th. To think of God, — that is, to reject all 
thought which excludes that of God. We 
must of course occupy ourselves with our 
duties, and accomplish them as perfectly as we 
are capable, but perform them in the presence 
of God with the thought that He has com- 
manded them, and that the careful fulfilment 
of our duties is pleasing to Him. 

IV. 

MEANS OF ATTAINING THE INTERIOR LIFE. 

1st. Great purity of conscience, — procured by 
the frequent, regular, and serious reception of 
the Sacrament of Penance, by a horror of all sin, 
of all imperfection, of all infidelity, by calmly, 
but energetically, avoiding all occasions of sin. 



210 The work of the Novitiate. 

2d. Great purity of heart, — detachment from 
all created objects : riches, the goods of this 
life, reputation, family, friends, fastidious tastes, 
health, life itself. . .not that we must cease to 
love our family and our friends, devote our- 
selves to them and show them our affection, but 
in the sense that their memory must only re- 
main in the heart united to the memory and 
love of God. 

3d. Great purity of mind, — to banish, with 
assiduous care, all useless thoughts and reflec- 
tions on the past, the present, or the future ; 
all preoccupation about the success of an en- 
terprise, all desire to be known and applauded. 

4th. Great purity of action, — not to charge 
ourselves with what does not enter into our 
obligations ; to repress all eagerness and undue 
activity ; to act in direct correspondence with 
the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, and to 
bear in mind that our actions glorify God ; to 
pause for a moment before passing from one 
duty to another, in order to direct our inten- 
tion ; to have always some occupation. 

5 th. Great recollection and mortification of 
the senses — to withdraw as much as possible 



The work of the Novitiate. 2 1 1 

(always considering the duties of our position) 
from visits, festivities, and noisy pleasures ; 
never to voluntarily permit ourselves useless 
glances, words, or enjoyments ; let them be 
governed by reason, decorum, edification, and 
charity ; to say our prayers more slowly, dis- 
tinctly pronouncing the words, and applying 
ourselves sometimes to relish their meaning. 

6th. Great exactness in all things: in the or- 
dinary actions of life, and particularly in our 
religious exercises ; let nothing be governed by 
chance or whim ; consider your rule as the 
expression of God's will; and say to yourselves 
sometimes when the hour for a duty comes: 
Let us go quickly ; God calls us. 

7 th. Great freedom with God: speaking to 
Him with simplicity, loving Him affection- 
ately, consulting Him in all things, rendering 
Him an account of everything, frequently 
thanking Him — above all, visiting Him with 
joy in the Holy Eucharist. This freedom with 
God cannot exist without a firm and constant 
fidelity to the morning meditation, of which 
we will speak later. 

8th. Great charity towards our neighbor; be- 



212 The work of the Novitiate. 

cause he is the beloved child of God, pray for 
him, console him, encourage him, instruct 
him, strengthen him, and help him in all 
things. 



OBSTACLES TO THE INTERIOR LIFE. 

1st. Natural impulsiveness which always im- 
pels us forward, making us act precipitately. 

It shows itself: 

In our projects : multiplying them, accumu- 
lating them, reversing them, repeating them. 
It allows no repose to itself or others until it 
has accomplished what it has conceived. 

In our actions. Nature craves movement. 
It burdens itself with a thousand things out- 
side of duty and sometimes contrary to duty. 
It impetuously gives itself up to what it is 
doing ; it runs, it hastens, it is ever troubled, 
and always impatient to see the end. 

In our repasts. The impulse of nature is to 
seize impetuously all that is put before it, with- 
out allowing reason or faith time to restrain its 
natural avidity. 



The work of the Novitiate. 2 1 3 

In our conversations. Impulsiveness makes 
us speak without reflection, interrupt without 
politeness, reprove without charity, judge with- 
out discretion. It makes us talk loud, dispute, 
and murmur. 

In our prayers. It charges itself with a 
number of prayers, which it recites hastily with- 
out attention or understanding, impatient to 
finish them; it cannot remain in meditation ; 
it torments and vexes itself, it wearies the brain, 
exhausts the piety of the soul, and prevents 
the action of the Holy Spirit. 

2d. Curiosity. It lays the soul open to all 
exterior objects ; it fills it with a thousand 
curious, agreeable, or sorrowful ideas which 
excite it and occupy it for entire days. 

Hence the impossibility of entering into one- 
self, and particularly of remaining there ; hence 
result disgust, sloth, weariness of everything 
like silence, recollection, or meditation. 

Curiosity shows itself in studies : pursued 
through vanity, through a desire of knowledge, 
and of appearing clever rather than instructing 
oneself and becoming useful ; in our reading : 
devoting a great portion of our time to stones, 



214 The work of the Novitiate. 

news, journals ; in our walks : leading us with 
the crowd in order to see and learn news that 
we may relate it afterwards ; in a multitude of 
actions : for example, hastening with feverish 
impatience to open a letter which is addressed 
to us, or to look at an object of interest, or to 
be the first to impart news. 

God, whom we have forgotten, retires from 
the heart leaving it empty ; hence the ardent 
desire to fill it with anything that presents 
itself. 

3d. Cowardice. God does not forbid a sub- 
missive and resigned complaint ; He forbids 
cowardly murmurings, and He withdraws from 
the soul which knows not how to lean upon 
Him. 

Cowardice shows itself in the trials of life, 
when we resist, and when we revolt against the 
divine will which sends us an illness, an accusa- 
tion, a privation : in spiritual dryness, when we 
give up prayer, meditation, communion, be- 
cause we feel no comfort in them — when we 
experience in them a moral and physical 
weariness which disgusts us and leads us to 
believe that God has forgotten us. The soul 



The work of the Novitiate. 2 1 5 

which leaves God goes to amuse itself in the 
world — and God is not found in the midst of 
the world. Cowardice shows itself, finally, in 
temptations : when the soul weary, tormented, 
frightened, retires far from God, and, instead 
of casting itself into His arms, cries that it is 
abandoned ; when the temptation is only per- 
mitted by God to make it more watchful, to 
preserve its humility, and give it an oppor- 
tunity to show greater love. 

VI. 



THE PIOUS NOVICE'S DAY. 



As an illustration of the principles we have 
just mentioned, we reproduce the following pa- 
ges inserted in our Livre de piete de iajeune fille y 
under the title of the Pious communicant's day. 
Why should it not be that of the pious novice? 

" It is no longer I who live, it is Jesus who 
lives in me. 

"It is no longer I who act, but Jesus who 
acts through me. 

" It it is no longer I who love ; but Jesus who 
loves in me and through me. 



216 The work of the Novitiate. 

"Therefore, I must perform all my actions as 
Jesus would have done them. 

"Therefore, I must not for a moment forget 
the presence of Jesus. 

"Jesus is my helper and shares with me half 
of what I have to do. 

"He is my model, and softly whispers how 
He would have performed the duty which is 
imposed upon me. 

" He is my support: He encourages me and 
enables me to endure fatigue and weariness. 

" He is my recompense, and counts, that He 
may reward me for it, every moment I spend 
in the performance of my duty. 

"He is my protector, and keeps the Evil 
One from me ; whilst I pray or work, He guards 
me from the wicked or strengthens me against 
their words, never permitting me to be over- 
come. 

"Therefore, I love Jesus ! 

"At my recreations I think of His gentleness, 
His kindness, His habitual sweetness. 

" He repulsed no one, He despised no one ; 
He was always the same: full of consideration 
and kindness, never weary of helping others, 



The work of the Novitiate. 217 

happy, particularly, when He inconvenienced 
or weaned Himself for others. 

"In my conversations , I speak sometimes of 
Him, always, at least, in His presence, so that 
nothing rude, unbecoming, or even imprudent 
may escape me ; I am happy when I can lead 
any one to love Him. 

11 In my studies, I think of our Saviour's good- 
ness in instructing His disciples, explaining to 
them, Himself, what they did not understand ; 
and, remembering that it is He who speaks to 
me by the voice of my mistresses, I listen to 
them with respect and gratitude. 

"I invoke Him when I experience any 
difficulty ; I submit when I meet with a hu- 
miliation, or when I encounter an obstacle; 
when I am somewhat successful, I thank 
Him, for it is He who has enlightened my 
understanding. 

"At my meals I think of His temperance, His 
sobriety, His mortification; of how kindly He 
Himself served His apostles; with what charity 
He worked miracles to feed the poor. 

"Oh ! if I were free to dispose of anything how 
abundant I would always make the portion of 



2 1 8 The work of the Novitiate. 

the poor ! Jesus would have made it so abun- 
dant ! Well, I wish to give all that I can : my 
intelligence, my skill, and my strength. 

" In my prayers, I imagine myself near Jesus, 
and I hear Him say to me, " Whatsoever yon 
will ask the Father in my name, that will I do" 
And I seek to be as recollected as He was, and I 
love to repeat some of the words which He Him- 
self used : Father, not my will, but thine be done! 
Father, give us this day our daily bread ! 
Father, may all know Thee and love Thee ! 

"In manual labor, I think of the actions, 
sometimes quite similar to mine, which Jesus 
performed ; He did all He was commanded, 
and did it perfectly ; He left His work the 
moment He was called, then resumed it or 
left it again. He never complained either of 
the length, or the monotony, or the difficulty 
of His task ; and He never hesitated, He who 
knew all things, to ask St. Joseph and the 
Blessed Virgin how a task should be done, and 
He perfectly followed the advice they gave Him. 

"In my trials I call upon Him. . . and I 
wait. . . I know He is with me, and even 
though He say no word to me I do not fear ; 



The work of the Novitiate. 219 

He will not let misfortune press me too sorely, 
nor weariness be so prolonged as to overwhelm 
me, nor temptation vanquish me. . . I invoke 
Him. . . I know that He will come in His 
own good time, and I continue, though some- 
times with tears and sighs, my work, my prayer, 
my ordinary life. 

"In the afflictions which Providence permits, 
I draw nearer to Him, and, if I do not find 
Him at my side, I seek Him. . . I find Him 
in the arms of the Blessed Virgin, who always 
gives Him to me after a fervent decade of the 
rosary ; I find Him in the midst of my sisters, 
particularly during prayer ; for He has said : 
Where there are two or three gathered together 
in my name, there am I in the midst of them; 
1 find Him in the house of Nazareth where 
He worked with His hands, and He comes to 
me when I work as zealously as He did ; I 
find Him on the cross, and the Way of the Cross 
which I make in the chapel restores Him to 
me with peace, calmness and resignation. I 
find Him, finally, in Holy Communion, and 
then I say to Him : Leave me no more ! 
Leave me no more ! 



220 The work of the Novitiate. 

" When going to sleep, I think of Jesus aban- 
doning Himself to rest, and I see Him sleeping 
peacefully and innocently : sometimes in the 
arms of Mary, sometimes in the tempest-tossed 
barque, sometimes in His crib at Bethlehem. I 
say to Him, O Jesus, may my rest be as peaceful 
as Thine, and may my heart be ever watching ; 
I desire that, during my sleep, each respiration 
should be a sigh of love, that, on awakening, 
my first words should be : Jesus, I love Thee. 

"Oh! how sweet my day is spent thus in 
union with Jesus \" 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TRIALS OF THE NOVITIATE. 

To try, is to test a person or an object, in 
order to discover whether it is really what it 
appears, or whether it is fitted for the purpose 
for which it is intended. 

Thus, when a bridge is thrown across a 
stream, a weight, superior to any it will have to 
bear, is placed upon it. If it bear this extra- 
ordinary weight we are sure it will resist an 
ordinary weight. It is in this way that we try 
the bridge. In like manner, before confiding 
a delicate piece of work to a workman, we ask 
to see a specimen of something equally dif- 
ficult and delicate which he has already done. 

Thus we try the workman. 

Destined for the service of God and for a dig- 
nity still more elevated — that of spouse of Jesus 
Christ, and on the point of contracting this di- 
vine alliance, is it not most just that they should 
not accept you till after they have assured them- 



222 Trials of the Novitiate. 

selves that you possess the qualities which this 
dignity requires ? 

The Novitiate has been like your apprentice- 
ship ; you have been told the faults which you 
should conquer, and the virtues which you 
should possess, to become the spouse of Jesus 
Christ; is it not just that those persons to whom 
God has confided your apprenticeship should 
see whether they can worthily present you to 
your Spouse, and whether you have the cour- 
age, the patience, the strength, the submission, 
which He asks ? 

It is for this that you must be tried. 

Trials are the different interior and exterior 
acts, usually painful to nature, which are exacted 
in the Novitiate to test the degree of fortitude 
and patience which the novice has attained, 
and at the same time to destroy the remains 
of her faults. 

I. 

SOURCE OF TRIALS. 

Trials come from God, the mistress of nov- 
ices, or your companions. 



Trials of the Novitiate. 223 

Trials on the part of God. 

We may say that, generally, God tries* nov- 
ices less than the religious ; in our Book for the 
Professed we will speak of the different trials 
to which God subjects a soul which He destines 
for a high degree of perfection, — terrible trials, 
sometimes, which poor, inexperienced novi- 
ces probably could not bear. 

Usually, God begins to attach souls to Him 
by affection, and not until they have once 
tasted the happiness of being loved by Him, 
and loving in return, does He begin gradually 
to purify them of their faults, and cause them 
to undergo the transformations which He judges 
necessary for His glory and their salvation. 

Hence it is that there is usually something 
so sweet, so peaceful, so pure about the Novi- 

*God certainly does not need to try us, He knows 
well what we are and what we are worth; but we need 
to be tried in order to discover of what we are capable 
with grace, and how weak we are of ourselves. That 
which is a trial on our part is not one on the part of 
God ; but, in speaking of the Sovereign Majesty, we 
are obliged to make use of the same expression which 
we use in speaking of men. 



224 Trials of the Novitiate. 

tiate : obedience is so well practised there, — 
its direction is so simple, — God manifests 
Himself so kindly to these young hearts so fill- 
ed with good will, — that we may say, without 
exaggeration, that the Novitiate is the most beau- 
tiful period of the religious life. 

God sends special blessings to it as He 
sends special dew to the tender little sprouting 
plant. 

There are doubtless weary hours in the Novi- 
tiate. Sometimes it is prayer which no longer 
offers any attraction— sometimes communion 
which no longer affords us consolation, — 
sometimes it is the confessor or the mistress 
who has been a little brusk with us, — or a 
humiliation which we believe to be more than 
we can bear, — or an expected letter which does 
not come. 

There are hours of fear : we will never attain 
the degree of virtue required of us, — we will 
never be good for anything. . . 

There are hours of discouragement : we can- 
not do anything better, — we are misunder- 
stood, — we are not appreciated, — we cannot 
succeed, — every one neglects us. 



Trials of the Novitiate. 225 

But these are passing clouds, and a word 
from the mistress to whom we confide our trou- 
bles dissipates them and restores serenity. 

2d. Trials on the part of the Mistress. 

The Mistress of novices must frequently try 
those who are confided to her care. " Let her 
ground her daughters well in solid virtues, " says 
St. Francis of Sales ; " let her render them as 
pliable as a glove ; let her deprive and detach 
them from all things — thwarting, at every turn, 
their inclinations, their judgment and their 
will ; let her enlarge their hearts by uproot- 
ing from them the trifles, the tender senti- 
ments, the indolent moods, which usually en- 
ervate and weaken the minds, principally of 
girls. . . behold the salutary mortifications 
which she should make them continually 
practise during the Novitiate, and all through 
a spirit of love for God/' 

44 Understand well, my dear daughters," again 
says the amiable saint, "that a grain of wheat 
in the earth does not bear fruit unless it die, 
but if it die it will bear fruit a hundredfold; 
the words of holy Scripture are very clear, that 



226 Trials of the Novitiate. 

which thou sowest is not quickened except it die 
first. Therefore you who aspire to the habit, 
and you others who aspire to holy profession, 
examine well, and more than once, if you have 
sufficient resolution to die to yourselves and 
live only to God. Weigh it all well ; you have 
still sufficient time to consider it before your 
veils be dyed black ; for I declare to you, my 
daughters, and I do not wish to flatter you, 
whoever desires to live according to nature 
let her stay in the world; and let those who 
are determined to live according to grace come 
to religion, which is no other than a school of 
abnegation and mortification of self. That is 
why you are furnished with instruments of 
mortification as much interior as exterior." 
We cannot enter into a detail of the trials 
which may be imposed upon you, but the novice 
must well understand, that the Mistress never 
acts through caprice or malice ; her aim, as 
well as her duty, is to assure herself that the 
novice has made some progress in the spirit 
and virtues of the Novitiate of which we have 
spoken, the special object of which is to subdue 
the will of the novice. 



Trials of the Novitiate. 227 

Sometimes the mistress will have one of the 
least efficient novices replace her for surveil- 
lance and the granting of little permissions, 
in order that she may see how the better 
instructed novices conduct themselves to- 
wards her. 

Sometimes she will appoint a postulant, who 
has just entered the convent, mistress of work, 
recommending her not to hesitate to oblige the 
novices to undo their finished work, if there be 
anything incomplete about it. 

If she perceive that a novice is a little too 
fond of study, and turns with reluctance to 
manual labor, she forbids her for a certain time 
all kinds of reading and keeps her exclusively 
occupied with mending. Does she see that 
another holds too much to her prayers, she 
chooses the moment when the bell rings for 
the exercise to which she is most attached, to 
; send her to sweep a hall, to work in a garden, 
! or to do some similar work. She frequently 
I asks a sister who is wanting in simplicity, to 
give an account of her meditation or the num- 
ber of her self-denials during the day. 

If she perceive that a sister has a natural 



228 Trials of the Novitiate. 

antipathy for another, she places her beside the 
companion whom she does not like, obliging 
her to work with her, to pray near her, to take 
her recreation with her. She makes us begin, 
several times over, a piece of work with which 
we are disgusted, because, perhaps, we find it 
inferior to what we believe ourselves capable 
of doing. She obliges a novice of a haughty, 
proud disposition to ask all her permissions 
of the companion whom she seems to despise. 

Sometimes she affects not to see a piece of 
work that she may not have to praise it, when 
it is set before her for the purpose of eliciting 
a compliment. 

She passes several days without speaking 
to a novice who, with a too natural affection, 
eagerly seeks her and always wishes to be near 
her. She obliges a sister who affects to be 
more interior than the others, to speak of God, 
on a given subject, before all her companions, 
and afterwards shows her how little she knows. 

She informs a sister that she has a letter for 
her and will not give it to her for a week. 
She makes a sister who mumbles or recites the 
prayers too quickly say them aloud more fre- 



Trials of the Novitiate. 229 

quently than the others. She makes one who 
is affected in her walk wear a coarser and heavier 
shoe. In the kitchen, for house-cleaning and 
domestic duties, she employs in preference 
those who are inclined to think themselves 
better than the others. 



We do not call trials penances imposed as 
the expiation of a fault. 

The trials imposed by the Mistress are not, 
in one sense, merited ; but the penances usually 
are — at least the Mistress always judges them to 
be so ; they become trials for the novice when 
she sees clearly that they are not merited, or 
that they are exaggerated ; in this case she 
must receive them as real trials. 



3d. Trials coming from our companions and the 

rule. 

A spirit of charity doubtless reigns in com- 
munities, particularly in Novitiates : neverthe- 
less, the difference in characters — sensitiveness, 



230 Trials of the Novitiate. 

prejudices, jealousies — inherent in certain 
temperaments, are almost continually an occa- 
sion of little trials. 

Certainly the rule imposes no obligations 
beyond the ordinary strength of nature ; more- 
over, these obligations are known to us ; we 
have studied them and we have been convinced 
that they involved nothing too difficult ; yet 
there are days when this rule weighs heavily, 
and we are pursued with the thought of casting 
off its yoke. 

" I am not deluding myself as to the nature 
of the life which I wish to embrace ; " wrote a 
young girl who, for some time had been pre- 
paring to enter La Trappe, " I look forward to 
more than one difficulty, to more than one 
temptation, and the idea of a paradise on earth 
has never entered my mind ; what is more, if 
there were one I would not have it at any price. 

" To satisfy the justice of God, as far as pos- 
sible, to acknowledge his innumerable bene- 
fits, and to testify my gratitude and love, by 
labor, prayer, suffering, is my sole ambition ; 
Father de Ravignan's motto—struggle, or suffer, 
is mine. 



Trials of the Novitiate. 231 

" There will be vexations in the convent, as 
there are everywhere, and particularly in my 
intercourse with the sisters, I presume : but I 
hope that God will help my weakness, and aid 
me to bear with others who will also have to 
bear with me. This forbearance, moreover, 
will be a just expiation of my past indepen- 
dence." 

* ' Do you know what a monastery is ? " says 
St. Francis of Sales. " It is an academy of strict 
correction where each soul must learn to allow 
itself to be treated, planed, polished, so that be- 
ing very smooth it may be joined, united, and 
glued to the will of God. All this is done in 
the Novitiate. Oh! happy the simple, docile, 
patient novices, who allow themselves to be 
treated, planed, polished! What a life of sanctity 
and union with God they prepare for them- 
selves 1 " 

II. 

MANNER OF BEARING TRIALS AND PUNISHMENTS. 

We must bear the trials to which they are 
good enough to subject us : 



232 Trials of the Novitiate. 

1 st. With generosity. 

Never letting a correction which we believe 
rather unmerited, or a trial the object of which 
we do not see, make us yield to sadness, 
weariness, tiouble, discouragement, pouting — 
all the exaggerations of an excited imagination, 
which sadden us to tears and cause us to find 
only ridiculous minutiae everywhere. . ■* 

It costs much to become a saint. 

Hear what Father Lacordaire, when provin- 
cial of the Dominicans, did to correct his faults! 

"One day the lay brother, as he was serving 
in the refectory, was the cause of some delay. 
The father, who never made any one wait, liked 

* A novice, whose courage was almost exhausted, 
went to her mistress, and, after relating her troubles, 
added: " I do not come to say that I will not, but 
only to tell you that I am suffering." 

The mistress, who knew the generosity of the soul 
she addressed, replied rather coldly: "Really, sister, if 
you have not come here to suffer, it is a different thing ; 
you can go.". . The novice, who later became a relig- 
ious, added, when relating the fact, "there is no an- 
swer to such an argument, so we continue on our way." 

Happy the houses where we can so speak and be 
thus understood ! 



Trials of the Novitiate. 233 

to see the same punctuality in others. As 
the brother did not appear, Father Lacordaire 
could not repress a movement of impatience 
which appeared in his countenance. In the 
evening as soon as he was free, he sought the 
brother and, confessing his fault on his knees, 
besought him to scourge him for it and send 
him away with the most injurious epithets. 
This is only one instance among a hundred/' 
says the author of his life. 

" At the convent in Paris, he also tells us 
that Father Lacordaire's door during his hours 
of reception was besieged by numerous visitors, 
all of whom were not equally welcome. He 
one day told his director that one of the things 
to which he had not yet been able to accustom 
himself was being interrupted at his work. 
' Each time/ said he, ' that they knock at my 
door, I cannot control a first movement of 
impatience. I want to correct myself of this 
fault, and, if you approve, you shall enter my 
cell at all hours, and without knocking. If 
you perceive in my countenance the slightest 
expression of impatience, you will give me the 
discipline.' 



2J4 Trials of the Novitiate. 

1 Yes, Father, I will do so/ 

" And the same day, in order to te9t his pen- 
itent, he abruptly entered his cell. Father 
Lacordaire fell on his knees, saying : ' Strike, 
Father/" 

' But I observed nothing in your manner/ 

1 Ah ! you did not see my impatience, but I 
felt it, replied the culprit, baring his shoul- 
ders/ " 

What do you think of such courage ! 

But here is a more consoling and encoura- 
ging page : 

44 My child," said a mistress of novices to 
one of her dear daughters, 44 since you wish to 
overcome your self-love, it is necessary that we 
act in concert, and that you follow exactly what 
1 tell you : From time to time I will correct 
you in public, for things that are not faults, 
properly speaking. I will warn you beforehand, 
and thus, knowing that I only do it to accustom 
you to overcome yourself, you will feel it less 
sensibly; I will even impose some penance 
upon you, and you will see that you will grad- 
ually learn to bear correction with humility. 

"Are you willing ?" "O yes, Mother!" 



Trials of the Novitiate. 235 

" Then let us begin this evening. . . Do not be 
alarmed however, I will spare your sensitiveness. 

" When we are at conference this evening, 
and while I am speaking, look me in the face 
for a moment ; I will reprove you for a want 
of modesty, — I will tell you that you are 
very dissipated, and order you to kiss the 
floor. You will render me an account after- 
wards of the feelings you will have experi- 
enced. " 

Everything happened in the evening as they 
had arranged. The next day the novice sought 
her mistress. " Well, my child/' said the lat- 
ter, holding out her arms to her. "Oh ! Moth- 
er/' replied the novice, "if you had seen my 
soul, how filled with pride you would have 
found it ! Oh ! how I trembled going to 
conference ! And how my heart beat when 
you had begun to speak ! I said to myself: 
* Presently, I must look at my mistress, she is 
going to mortify me before every one/ I hesi- 
tated ; then, suddenly shaking off my fear, I 
invoked the Blessed Virgin, and my resolution 
was taken. After that it hardly cost me at all, 
and if you had scolded me still more severely, 



236 Trials of the Novitiate. 

and if you had imposed a still more humiliating 
penance, I would have done it with all my 
heart ; and when we retired, I felt a joy which 
I had never before experienced." 

" Good, my child, good ; we will begin again 
sometime will we not ? and then we must walk 
alone. . . I shall not warn you anymore ; but 
God will be with you, and in a short time you 
will know how to remain calm under every- 
thing." 

Comprehend well the following words, writ- 
ten by St. Francis of Sales : 

4 ' Every convent is a hospital for the spiritual 
sick who desire to be cured, and who to that 
end subject themselves to suffer, to be bled: to 
the lancet, to the knife, to the iron, to fire and 
all the bitterness of every kind of medicine. In 
the early Church religious bore a name which 
signified cure, and this you must desire when 
you enter religion, and make no account of 
what self-love may say to the contrary ; you 
must gently and courageously take this resolu 
tion : "To die, or to suffer ; and since I would 
not die spiritually, I wish to be cured ; and 
to be cured I wish to bear correction and 



Trials of the Novitiate. 237 

beseech the physicians not to spare me pain, 
in order that my cure may be complete/' 

With constancy. 

Do not tire, do not tire. Becoming humble, 
patient, simple, obedient, is not the work of 
a day. 

In working on our souls we have not a block 
of marble which preserves the form given to it 
by the blows of the chisel, but a living being 
from which we cut a part of itself and which 
has the property of almost indefinitely repro- 
ducing the portion we have cut from it. . . 

Then let the mistress do with you what she 
will, whenever she has the charity to occupy 
herself with you, and do not imagine that all 
the suffering and all the weariness are yours ; 
there are times when the duty of correction is 
very painful. Do you think it is human nature 
to be indifferent to the iact that one is subject- 
ing herself to be considered too severe, unjust, 
partial, whimsical, when she is only doing her 
duty ?— that she is causing herself to be shunned 
when she could so easily surround herself with 



2*8 Trials of the Novitiate. 

sympathy ? — that she is making herself detested 
even (they go as far as that sometimes) when it 
would be so pleasant to make oneself loved ? 

Ah, if you understood your interests you 
would cast yourself at the feet of your mistress 
and say to her : In the name of God, have mercy 
on my soul, correct me, scotd me, punish me ! 

Hear the motherly words of a mistress of nov- 
ices, Mother Mary Ephraim, to her children: 
"I will not hide from you the thorns of the 
route. Oh ! no, my children, I wish you to see 
them all ; in the beginning, however, I will 
soften them with all the tenderness of a Mother, 
— this I owe to your weakness; later, I will 
let you feel them. The stones of the route 
may also wound and bruise your feet ; but is it 
not necessary that you learn to suffer some- 
thing for Jesus ? Hardship makes one strong; 
after an energetic struggle usually follows ex- 
haustion, but it is of short duration; new 
courage is born again in the soul after combat, 
and we keep on still longer. . . I do not say 
that I will not sometimes wipe the sweat from 
your brow, and that I will not help you. O 
my poor children, I will do it each time that 



Trials of the Novitiate. 239 

the good of your souls requires it, and that life 
seems too bitter to you. There are on earth 
such days of gloom and weariness ! You are 
still young, my children, but God has therefore 
given you a Mother — bear this in mind; you 
will always find her in your fatigues, your dis- 
couragement, your weariness ! And when 
you are professed, oh! then, my children, it is 
Jesus who will do all, and your Mother will 
tell you to always permit Him to do what He 
will with you, and not to spoil His work by 
wishing to act according to your inclinations. " 



CHAPTER IX. \ 

DEVOTIONS OF THE NOVITIATE. 

I. 

GENERAL RULES. 

" During the Novitiate of sisters," says St. 
Francis of Sales, "one should endeavor to 
strengthen their hearts and render them devout, 
not with mincing, tender, or weeping devotion, 
but with a devotion equally sweet, courageous, 
and confident. " 

Many novices are inclined, either through 
education or temperament, or because of books 
which they have read, to cultivate this mincing, 
tender, or weeping devotion, spoken of by the 
amiable saint whom we have just cited. They 
do not reflect that a multiplicity of pious feel- 
ings weakens the disposition; that pious feelings 
too eagerly sought expire quickly, particularly 
when youth has flown, and then, when the soul 
is left cold and barren, they believe themselves 






Devotions of the Novitiate. 241 

abandoned by God, they murmur, they neglect 
even obligatory prayers. 

They do not reflect that they are making 
themselves singular, attracting remark, afford- 
ing the devil an opportunity of tempting them 
to vanity, and of leading them to despise others; 
that they disturb the harmony of the community 
and can never conform their humor and inclina- 
tions to the rule of charity* 

From your entrance into the Novitiate re- 
nounce your special devotions \ to attach yourself 
to those which your companions practise ac- 
cording to the rule and custom. Tell your 
mistress the practices to which you have been 
accustomed, — the prayers you recited, — the 



* "The devotion of religious, " says St. Francis of 
Sales, " must be strong : " 

1st. To resist the temptations which are never want- 
ing to those who seriously wish to serve God. 

2d. To bear with the variety of dispositions which 
are found in a congregation, and which to weak minds 
is as difficult an exercise of patience as they can find. 

3d. To bear each one his imperfections, that he may 
not be disquieted at seeing that he is subject to them. 

4th. Strong to fight one's imperfections. 

5 th. Strong to despise the remarks and opinions of 



242 Devotions of the Novitiate^ 

confraternities to which you belonged. . .and 
retain only those which she tells you to con- 
tinue, or abandon all if she judge it wiser. 

Here are some practical counsels which you 
should rigidly follow : 

: 1st. Never to assume any pious engagement 
without having consulted your mistress and 
your confessor, whatever may be the attraction 
which this engagement has for you ; not even 
if it were recommended in public, or, specially, 
by a person to whom you owe respect. 

2d. Always prefer the exercises of the rule 
to those which you may prescribe for yourself, 
and hold strongly to performing them with all 



the world which never fail to censure pious institutes. 

6th. Strong to maintain oneself independent of 
affections, friendships, particular inclinations, in ordei 
not to live according to impulse but according to th< 
light of true piety. 

7th. Strong to maintain oneself independent of 
tenderness, sweetness and consolations, which com< 
to us as much from God as from creatures, that w< 
may not be entangled by them. 

8th. Strong to undertake a continual war agains 
our evil inclinations, humors, habits, and propensities 



Devotions of the Novitiate. 243 

the community rather than alone, even though 
you may be more distracted when with others. 

3d. Do not multiply your devotional prac- 
tices too much, — above all, do not be eager to 
adopt all those propagated by pious persons, 
and which suddenly take hold of your imagi- 
nation or your heart because they are beautiful 
and appear to you calculated to do immense 
good. You encumber your mind, you spend 
a great deal of time on them, and perhaps 
neglect your duties. 

4th. Avoid every devotion, every practice, 
which appears too much in the eyes of the com- 
munity ; it will expose you to be considered 
singular and perhaps make you vain. 

5th. Do not be such a slave to your prac- 
tices that you may not leave them without 
regret when obedience, charity, or even de- 
corum requires it. 

6th. Whatever may be your method of medi- 
tation — whatever the authority which counseled 
it, submit it to your mistress; and if she judge 
proper to restrict you to the method followed 
in the community, obey without a word. 

7th. Show all the pious books which you 



244 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

have brought with you, and all those which 
will be given you or lent you ; acknowledge 
with simplicity those volumes which have a 
special attraction for you, and retain only those 
which they would willingly leave you. 

8th. Remember that the word "devotion" 
means devotedness ; and that devotion does not 
consist in such an act which pleases us or flat- 
ters us, — in such a. prayer which touches us, — 
in such a reading which moves us to tears ; 
but in a full and entire acceptance of the state in 
which God wishes us, and in the perfect accom- 
plishment of imposed duly, in spite of the repug- 
nances of nature and the trouble which arises 
from the imagination. 

9th. Doubtless, during your religious life, you 
will be allowed all the time necessary for per- 
forming your religious duties; but suppose that 
some day you are obliged to shorten your 
thanksgiving after communion, — to curtail 
part of your prayers, — forbidden a prescribed 
fast, — taken from the choir for some time, — 
deprived even of communion. . . remain in 
peace, and understand well that you honor 
God more by your simple unmurmuring sub 



Devotions of the Novitiate. 245 

mission than by the prayers which you would 
have said or the privations to which you would 
have submitted by following your inclinations. 

10th. Avoid obstinacy in your devotions. 
That tenacious clinging to one's prayers, 
communions, special devotions, etc., is one of 
the things which cause us to fear that the de- 
votion may be false. 

"Devotion." says St. Thomas, " is a partic- 
ular disposition of the will, by which the soul 
eagerly embraces all that relates to the service 
of God." 

The service of God! Behold the important 
words in this definition; and this service is 
God's to command, and not ours to choose. 

Do not think everything is lost, when you 
have no relish for prayer, — no attraction for 
holy communion, — no joy after confession. 

These emotions may, doubtless, be an effect 
of grace; but very often they are also the effect 
of natural sensibility and imagination ; and 
there is no commandment which obliges us to 
experience them. 

You should pray, receive holy communion, 
go to confession, because God wishes it, and 



246 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

not because you experience a certain comfort 
in performing these duties. " You do well," 
writes St. Francis of Sales, "to continue your 
pious exercises in the midst of dryness and 
disgust. For since we only serve God through 
love for Him, and as the service we render 
Him in the midst of dryness is more pleasing to 
Him than that performed with sweetness, it 
should also be more pleasing to us, at least 
to our superior will ; and though, according to 
our taste and self-love, consolations are sweeter, 
yet dryness, according to the will of God and 
according to His love, is more profitable." 

"Alas!" adds the saint, " we are devoted 
to the delightful consolations of piety ; yet the 
burden of dryness is more fruitful ; and though 
St. Peter loved Mount Thabor, and fled from 
Calvary, the latter does not cease to be more 
useful than the former, and the blood shed on 
the one is more desirable than the light which 
filled the other. 

''Our Lord already treats you as a strong 
soul: try to live as one ; it is better to eat bread 
without sugar, than sugar without bread." 



Devotions of the Novitiate. 247 
II. 

PARTICULAR RULES. 

We simply mention the principal devotions 
common to all Novitiates. Not wishing to 
write a book of prayers, we confine ourselves to 
generalities; moreover, the Directories, or 
Constitutions of the different houses, give the 
exercises to stimulate the piety of the novices.* 

1st y Devotion to the most blessed Trinity. 

The happiness of the angels and saints in 
heaven consists in contemplating, face to face, 
this Holy Trinity: adoring It, praising It, loving 

* Each Novitiate has a particular devotion to the 
mystery or saint under whose name they have been 
approved. We only mention that devotion, expressing 
at the same time our regret that the plan of our book 
does not permit us to develop the subjects mentioned 
below. It would have been so consoling and so 
sweet to speak at length of the Holy Eucharist ', of 
Communion, of the Heart of Jesus, of the Blessea 
Virgin. . . and to lead the novices to love with still 
more ardor, and still more devotion, Jesus and Mary. 

We recommend to the novices our Livre de PUU 
de la Jeune Fille. 



248 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

It; unceasingly singing the canticle, Holy, 
Holy, Holy Lord ! 

The Church, at the moment when the holy 
Victim descends on the altar, puts in the mouth 
of the priest, and the choir of the faithful, this 
same canticle of the angels. 

She begins the august Sacrifice, the admin- 
istration of the sacraments, all her prayers, 
particularly those which compose the divine 
Office, by an invocation to the Holy Trinity ; 
she terminates all the psalms, all the canticles, 
all the hymns, all the prayers, by rendering glory 
to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

* * You, pious novices, who far from the 
world, endeavor already to become angels on 
earth, love — love to repeat this hymn which will 
be on your lips for all eternity : Holy ! Holy ! 
Holy God I Almighty God ! Glory be to the 
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost! 

" Renew your sentiments of faith, respect 
and love, for the Holy Trinity each time that 
you make the sign 0/ the cross, or say the Glory 
be to the Father \ at office ; bow your head as the 
Church prescribes, and pronounce softly an act 
of submission and love/' 



Devotions of the Novitiate. 249 

St Vincent of Paul asked the Pope, that in 
his bull, instituting his congregation, it should 
be made a duty for its members to honor, in a 
special manner, this august mystery. 

2d, Devotion to divine Providence. 

This should be the great devotion of religious 
communities. 

Providence ! That is God regarded as a Father, 
and, under this touching title, charged with the 
maintenance, sustenance, honor, defense of all 
the community! 

Oh! truly when we read with attention the 
texts of the Gospel which show God's care for 
the smallest being of creation: God conjuring 
us to trust ourselves to Him ; God assuring 
us that if we are occupied in seeking the king- 
dom of heaven, He will charge Himself with 
all concerning us; God who has promised us — 
who for Him have left father, mother, brothers, 
sisters, lands — a hundred fold, even in this life, 
— how is it possible not to feel moved and 
grateful, and the most unlimited confidence ! 

O my God ! my God ! Thou who art my 
Father ! Thou wilt never let me want for 



250 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

anything! Thou who art my Mother, Thou wilt 
love me ! 

Thou who art my Brother, Thou wilt defend 
me ! 

Thou who art my Sister, Thou wilt care for 
me ! 

My God, how happy am I who can call Thee 
"Father" with so much more truth than all 
other creatures whom Thou hast not called to 
the religious life ! 

Many communities recite every day the 
Litany of Providence ; lovingly recite at least an 
Our Father, and let this prayer be the one 
which you love most. 

jd } Devotion to the Holy Eucharist. 

Behold your heart's devotion ! you who have 
the happiness of living so near to the real pres- 
ence of Jesus, — of dwelling under the same 
roof with Him, — of going several times a day 
to visit Him, — of seeing almost every hour the 
blessed walls which hide Him from your view, 
but which do not hide you from the gaze of 
His love. 



Devotions of the Novitiate. 251 

Love to visit the Blessed Sacrament. ' •' There 
is no more solid devotion," says Bourdaloue, 
" there is none more conformable to the views ana 
intentions of Jesus Christ; there is none more 1 
salutary for ourselves, nor more useful. " 

Eagerly go before the altar each time the 
rule calls you thither or permits you to go ; 
make it your delight to be with Jesus ; and 
there love, pray, weep, supplicate, give thanks ; 
and if you can rouse no sentiment in your 
heart, remain there letting your poor soul be 
inflamed at this fire of love — gazing, and wait- 
ing in patience. 

Assist at the Mass with the interior and ex- 
terior respect which indicates to the angels and 
your sisters the sentiments with which you are 
penetrated. All the Directories give the pray- 
ers for Mass and methods of uniting oneself 
with Jesus Christ during the holy Sacrifice ; 
say these prayers, study these methods, follow 
them faithfully and do not modify them without 
the permission of your mistress. 

And Holy Communion P Oh ! yes, my sister, 
love to receive Holy Communion. Communion 
is the life of the soul, — it is the cure of the 



252 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

sick, — it is the strength of the weak, — it is 
the perfection of the saints. The number of 
communions in the Novitiate is usually fixed 
by the rule ; and it must be said that, for the 
greater number of novices, the privation of 
frequent communion which was permitted them 
in the world, is one of the most painful trials. 

God forbid that we should urge you to 
withdraw from the Holy Table ; we heartily 
approve the almost daily communion which you 
had the happiness to make in the world, and 
yet we tell you : Make no communions but 
those indicated by the rule ; if there are but 
two, but one a week ; make but two, — but one ; 
and let spiritual communions supply the place 
of those which made you so happy. 

It is useless to tell you the motive which 
restricts the number of communions in the 
Novitiate ; it suffices for you, to know that it is 
a point of the rule ; later, when you are pro- 
fessed, God will know well how to compensate 
for this temporary privation. 



Devotions of the Novitiate. 253 
4th, Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

This devotion is essentially united with that 
of the divine Eucharist. 

It was a religious whom Jesus Christ charged 
with propagating the devotion to His Sacred 
Heart, and it appears that it is to religious, 
more than to others, that God has confided 
the care of loving this divine Heart : of making 
It known, of making reparation for the outrages 
which are committed against It. 

Therefore, you will love this Sacred Heart, 
and you will cause It to be loved ; you will 
frequently go before the Tabernacle to medi- 
tate upon Its love, so tender, so sincere, so 
ardent, so liberal, so disinterested, so constant ; 
you will unite yourself to It, that you may 
become humble, gentle, patient, devoted ; and 
you will find in this union light, strength, 
and consolation. 

jth, Devotion to the mysteries of Jesus Christ. 

The Church in her festivals brings us back 
each year to the memory of the mysteries of 
Jesus Christ : His Incarnation, His Birth, Hi? 



254 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

Hidden Life, His Passion, His Death, His 
Resurrection, His Ascension, come, in turn, to 
remind us of the love He manifested for us, 
and the duties which we owe Him. 

These various mysteries are the foundation 
of our faith, the support of our hope, the con- 
soling object of our love. 

It is through these mysteries that we learn to 
know Jesus Christ — the only science necessary 
for a Christian, the only one to which St. Paul 
professes to devote and apply his disciples : / 
judged not myself to know anything among you, but 
Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Therefore you 
will celebrate them piously, seeking to be pen- 
etrated with the spirit of the mystery. There 
are two which we particularly recommend to 
you : The holy infancy of Jesus, which should 
be the special model in novitiates, and the 
mystery of the cross. 

Nearly all religious wear a cross on their 
breasts ; kiss yours on rising in the morning 
and retiring at night, and in temptation, in 
hours of discouragement — at those times when 
obedience seems so hard, have the pious habit 
of gently kissing the head of your Saviour, of 



Devotions of the Novitiate. 255 

looking at your crucifix, and saying softly to 
Jesus : Leave me not, good Master. 

Days when you are most downcast, love to 
make the Way of the Cross; you cannot follow 
after Jesus in this route without feeling strength- 
ened and encouraged to suffer.* 



6th, Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 

All novitiates are under the protection of the 
Blessed Virgin. Her statue is always placed 
on a throne in the large room where the novices 
usually assemble, and there she reigns over all 
hearts and all souls. 

All prayers are recited facing this beloved 
statue ; it is at its feet a novice sometimes 



* We do not make a special article of devotion to the 
Church a necessary result of devotion to Jesus Christ 
who has charged her to continue His work. 

It is no longer Jesus Christ who speaks, it is the 
Church. Respect then every decision, and even every 
word, of the Sovereign Pontiff; respect bishops and 
priests; and never from your lips, even though you 
believe you speak with good reason, let a word of 
Contempt or blame fall upon them. , 



256 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

obtains the favor of pursuing her work ; in the 
absence of the mistress all permissions are asked 
with pious simplicity of her whom it represents; 
during the hours of work many times do the 
eyes of the weary novices turn towards it to ask 
for courage ; in many novitiates, the novices, 
kneeling round it each evening, recite aloud 
an act of consecration. 

Devotion to Mary, so well named "The devo- 
tion of the Predestined," since it is inseparable 
from that of Jesus Christ, will be frequently 
preached to you in the Novitiate. Open your 
heart to the good words you will hear, joyfully 
embrace the pious practices which will be sug- 
gested to you, and celebrate with profound 
recollection and at the same time great joy, all 
the feasts in honor of Mary. 

Among the prayers of the rule, be particularly 
attached to the recitation of the rosary; in sick- 
ness let it be the last prayer you relinquish 
when you are told to suspend some of them. 
The rosary is not fatiguing ; it can be re-com- 
menced and interrupted with facility ; it can 
take the place of meditation, of preparation for 
communion, of thanksgiving after commu- 



Devotions of the Novitiate. 257 

nion. . . How happy you will be at the hour 
of death to be able to say : Since my entrance 
to religion I have never voluntarily omitted my 
rosary. 

"When you are in tribulation," said Thomas 
a Kempis, many years ago, to the novices 
whom he directed, — "when you are in tribula- 
tion, if you desire relief, go to the mother of 
Jesus: go to Mary I" 

With this zealous servant of Mary we will tell 
you with all the ardor of which we are capable : 
"Think of Mary, — appeal to Mary, — honor 
Mary, — speak to Mary, — salute Mary, — re- 
commend yourself to Mary ! 

"With Mary remain solitary in your cell, — 
with Mary preserve silence, — with Mary live 
joyfully, — with Mary bear your trials, — with 
Mary labor, — with Mary pray, — with Mary 
take your recreation, — with Mary take your 
repose. 

"With Mary seek Jesus ; in your arms bear 
Jesus, and with Jesus and Mary fix your dwel- 
ling at Nazareth. 

" With Mary go to Jerusalem; remain near 
the cross of Jesus; bury yourself with Jesus. 



zr t 8 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

" With Jesus and Mary rise again; with Jesus 
and Mary mount to heaven; with Jesus and 
Mary live and die ! 

"Oh! beloved novice, if you do thus, the 
devil will fly from you, and your soul will be 
gradually raised to heaven. 

" Happy he who lives in holy familiarity 
with Jesus and Mary : who invites them to his 
table, chooses them as the companions of his 
route, as the consolers of his troubles, as his 
refuge in discouragement, as his counsellors in 
doubt ; particularly, as his support at the last 
hour/' 



'Jth, Devotion to St. Joseph. 

In the last few years, devotion to St. Joseph 
has spread in a manner which may be called 
miraculous. 

Every Christian heart rejoices at it ; rejoice 
you, also, religious, who are of the family of 
Jesus, for St. Joseph by this very fact has be- 
come your protector, or, rather, your steward. 

Was it not he who was charged with pro- 
viding for the material cOmfort of the Holy 



Devotions of the Novitiate, 259 

Family ? And since you, living with Jesus and 
Mary, continue this family of Nazareth, must 
he not care for you ? 

The annals of religious houses are filled with 
miraculous facts which attest the special in- 
tervention of St Joseph. Sometimes it is a 
depopulated Novitiate which receives subjects 
filled with piety; sometimes it is food for the 
day which is wanting ; or, again, it a sum of 
money needed to meet a pressing obligation, 
or to receive a poor, infirm patient into the 
hospital, which, after a fervent prayer to St. 
Joseph, is brought, sometimes by unknown 
hands, and frequently by charitable persons 
saying : We felt impelled to come to you, 

Go to St. Joseph, pray to him, meditate 
upon his virtues ; near him, you will learn to 
pray, to labor, to suffer — above all, how to at- 
tain a happy death. 

8th y Devotion to the Holy Angels. 

Devotion to the Holy Angels and particularly 
the Angel Guardian, should also be one of the 
special devotions of the Novitiate. 



260 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

It leads to the practice of the interior life, and 
a life of union with God ; it is the result of 
devotion to divine Providence. There are few 
thoughts so consoling and encouraging as thei 
following : " I have at my side an Angel who 
will never leave me. God in His goodness has 
said to him : Be for this soul ; now, particu- 
larly, that it has left father and mother, and 
loved ones, to attach itself to Me, be its consoler ; 
speak to it of its father and mother ; show it its 
family protected by a special Providence. 

44 Be its guardian: keep from it discourage- 
ment, temptations, sin. 

"Be its guide; show it its rule as the sure 
path which must lead it to Me ; smooth for it 
the difficulties it will encounter, afford it some 
joys in the midst of its sacrifices. 

4 ' Be its protector; warn it by counsels, re- 
proaches, punishments if necessary, but do not 
let it fall ; if, notwithstanding thy counsel, it 
commit a sin, help it to rise again and conu 
back to me." 

Then, frequently think of your Angel Guard 
ian, and as you have the pious habit of invo 
king him morning and evening, say the littl< 



Devotions of the Novitiate. 261 

prayer you address to him with deep sentiments 
of respect and joy. 



pth, Devotion to the souts in Purgatory. 

In nearly all communities superiors have 
proposed to their sisters the heroic act for the 
souls in Purgatory, since the practice has been 
approved by the Holy See and enriched with 
precious indulgences. * 

* We know that this heroic act is a voluntary offer- 
ing or donation of the personal satisfactory works of 
our life, and the suffrages which will be offered for us 
after our death, which we place in the hands of the 
Blessed Virgin, that this tender Mother may apply 
them as she pleases to those souls in Purgatory whom 
she desires to release. 

In virtue of this act, once made, we forever deprive 
ourselves only of the fruit of these satisfactions and 
suffrages, and are not prevented from praying for our- 
selves, for our relatives, etc. — This act does not oblige 
under pain of sin; it needs no special formula, but suf- 
fices that we desire in our hearts to make the offering. 

The Popes Benedict XIII, Pius VI, and Pius IX, 
have enriched it: 1st, with a plenary indulgence appli- 



262 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

All religious have eagerly accepted this act 
of chanty, and there is not an hour of the 
day or night during which God does not 
receive, for the deliverance of His dear souls 
in Purgatory, an almost infinite number of 
prayers and satisfactory works. Nor is there 
hardly an hour during which a religious, faith- 
ful to her rule, assiduous in work, patient in 
trouble, does not (by the very fact that she 
has given the merit of her actions to the 
souls in Purgatory,) perform one of those 
works of mercy for which God has promised 
a crown at the last day. 

Hear the consoling doctrine of St. Francis 
of Sales: — 

1st. Is it not in one way visiting the sick : 
descending into those devouring flames to 



cable only to the souls in Purgatory at each com- 
munion, provided that he who communicates pray in 
a public church or oratory according to the intention of 
the Sovereign Pontiff. 2d, A plenary indulgence every 
Monday for hearing Mass for the souls in Purgatory. 
Holy Communion is not necessary to gain the indul- 
gence ; it suffices to pray according to the intention 
of the Sovereign Pontiff. 



Devotions of the Novitiate. 263 

bring the souls lying on their bed of fire the 
alms of your prayers ? 

2d. Is it not giving drink to the thirsty, 
when we pour the sweet dew of heavenly grace 
on souls consumed with a devouring thirst 
to see God face to face ? 

3d. Do we not truly feed the hungry, when 
we hasten, the moment of their entrance, into 
the possession of their happiness : of heaven, 
of God, for whom they hungered more than 
the beggar for the morsel of bread which we 
give him? 

4th. Yes, we ransom the captive by paying 
the ransom of holy souls, captives to divine 
Justice : by breaking the chains which held 
them far from heaven — and what chains ! 

5th. We magnificently clothe the naked 
when by our penance we open to the dead the 
abode of glory where the Lord has prepared 
for them an incomparable garment of the light 
of eternal splendor. 

6th. What admirable hospitality do we not 
exercise by introducing them into the heavenly 
Jerusalem, the triumphant city of the Blessed! 

7th. Can we compare the merit of burying 



264 Devotions of the Novitiate. 

a body, the food of worms, to the inestima- 
ble happiness of sending immortal souls to 
heaven ? * 

* We recommend the novices to sanctify each day of 
the week by one of the following devotions: Sunday, 
the Blessed Trinity and Divine Providence;— -Monday, 
the Souls in Purgatory; — Tuesday, our Angel Guard- 
ian; — Wednesday, St. Joseph; — Thursday, the Bless- 
ed Sacrament;— Friday, the Passion and the Heart of 
Jesus; — Saturday, the Blessed Virgin* 



CHAPTER X. 

AIDS OF THE NOVITIATE. 

In the Novitiate there are interior aids which 
are like the sap of vegetation to the soul, pro- 
moting its growth, strengthening it, and per- 
fecting it ; these are : 

Meditation. 

Particular Examen. 

Monthly Retreat. 

Special Rule. 

SPECIAL RULE. 

There are still exterior aids, which are to the 
novice like props, by the aid of which she 
remains firm in spite of the storms which some- 
times pass over her ; — courageous in spite of 
the disheartening and wearisome thoughts 
suggested by the devil. 

These exterior aids are : 

The Rule. 

General Prayers. 



266 Aids of the Novitiate. 

Direction. 

Chapter. 

Spiritual Reading. 

We do not speak of the sacraments which 
are common to all the faithful, and about which 
all pious books give the wisest counsels. It is 
particularly from confession and communion that 
the novice gathers the strength and courage 
she requires. 

Let her bring to their reception the same 
earnest care that she did before her entrance 
to the community. Perhaps the first days she 
may find in them less joy, less sweetness ; but 
let not this deceive her ; the direct fruit of Holy 
Communion is not joy, is not sweetness : but 
vigilance over self horror of sin, devotion to duty 
and union with God. 



INTERIOR AIDS. MEDITATION. 

Is it necessary to remind you at any length 
of the necessity of meditation ? 

After all that we have said of your duties do 
you not understand that without at least a half 
hour of daily converse with God: rendering Him 



Aids of the Novitiate. 267 

your homage, listening to His word, promis- 
ing your submission, offering yourself for His 
service, exposing to Him your wants, showing 
Him your weakness, telling Him your fears 
— the obstacles you apprehend, asking His 
assistance and promising to do something to 
please Him,— do you not understand, that with- 
out this it is impossible to fulfill your obliga- 
tions, — impossible, particularly, to attain that 
interior life, of the necessity of which we have 
given you a partial glimpse? 

You will apply yourself then to meditation ; 
and to encourage you in it we are going to 
gather here a few words of the saints, which will 
serve to animate your fervor and your will, in 
moments of disgust and weariness. 

Meditation is the basis and foundation of 
solid virtues ; if the basis be wanting the whole 
edifice is soon overthrown. — St. Theresa. 

* 

Meditation and sin cannot exist together in 
one soul. — St. Philip Neri. 



268 Aids of the Novitiate. 

The holy hermits had little or no spiritual 
conferences, the greater number of them did 
not even have the happiness of frequently re- 
ceiving the Holy Eucharist ; and yet by means 
of meditation they became angelic men, of 
consummate virtue, full of contempt and in- 
difference towards themselves, and the most 
lively and ardent charity for their neighbor. — 
St. Francis of Sales. 

■5* 

We find Christians who communicate daily, and 
are in a state of mortal sin ; Christians who 
give abundant alms, and are in a state of mor- 
tal sin ; Christians who mortify themselves in 
every way, and are in a state of mortal sin ; 
but we never find a soul which makes a daily 
meditation, and lives in a state of mortal sin. 
St. Liguoru 

Would you suffer with patience the vicissi- 
tudes and miseries of life ? Be a child of 
meditation. 

Would you obtain courage and strength to 
overcome the temptations of the enemy ? Be 
a child of meditation. 



Aids of the Novitiate, 269 

Would you mortify your own will, its in- 
clinations and evil tendencies ? Be a child 
of meditation. 

Would you recognize the snares of the Evil 
One ? Be a child of meditation. 

Would you live joyfully and walk gently in 
the path of self-denial ? Be a child of medi- 
tation. 

Would you nourish your soul with the sweet- 
ness of devotion, and have it always filled with 
good thoughts and desires ? Be a child of 
meditation. 

Would you finally uproot from your soul 
all vices, and plant in their place virtues which 
will make you cherished by God and your 
neighbor? Be a child of meditation. St. 
Bonaventure, 

The religious who neglects meditation is 
indevout in church, distracted at choir, want- 
ing in the modesty of the cloister, dissipated 
at conference, — chagrined and dissatisfied ev- 
ery where. 

Work annoys her, obedience displeases her, 



270 Aids of the Novitiate. 

the artifices of the devil deceive her, tempta- 
tions triumph over her frailty. — *SV. Thomas 
of Villanova. 



The soul which abandons meditation needs 
not the devil to tempt it; it is its own tempter. 

That soul, on the contrary, which is faithful 
to meditation in spite of the weariness and 
disgust it may experience in it, will, sooner or 
later, reach the port of salvation. — St. Theresa. 

Meditation is the holy soul's rampart ; the 
consolation of its good angel, the torment of 
the evil one; the destruction of vices, the mother 
of virtues ; the mirror of the soul, the strength 
of hope, the path of knowledge, the solace of 
fatigue, the focus of charity, the source of com- 
punction, the exterminator of evil inclinations, 
the advocate which obtains for us all spiritual 
good. — St. Lawrence Justinian. 



We shall pause here, though we could easily 
multiply these extracts ; for there is not an as- 
cetic author who does not insist on the necessity 



Aids of the Novitiate. 271 

of meditation ; we will only give a few general 
counsels. * 



ADVICE UPON MEDITATION. 

During meditation assume the posture most 
conformable either to the state of your soul, or 
even to the weakness of your temperament. 
Whether standing, kneeling, sitting, or pros- 
trate. — St. Ignatius. 

Apply yourself less to thinking much, than to 
well understanding and interiorly relishing the 
truth upon which you meditate. Apply your- 
self particularly to learning and comprehending 
what Jesus Christ has said, has thought, has 
done, upon the subject you are considering. 
Jesus should be your model. 

Happy they who always have Jesus Christ 
present to their souls during meditation ; He 

* We do not think it necessary to indicate any meth- 
od of meditation, as each community adopts the one 
which best suits it, and each sister should conform to 
it j unless in case of a particular attraction for some 
other method, which she must first submit to the direc- 
tor and the superior. 



272 Aids of the Novitiate. 

alone is the way, the truth, and the life. . . 
M Oilier. 

If a thought moves you, dwell upon it as 
long as the impression lasts, without seeking to 
pass to another. 

Do not neglect the method indicated, which 
laziness may frequently prompt you to do ; be 
no less enslaved by it to the point of seeking 
to follow to the very letter all that it suggests. 
From the moment your soul experiences a 
sweet emotion which makes it feel the pres- 
ence of God, abandon all method, and remain 
with God. Do not go seeking in your mind 
for what you have in your heart. — St. Francis 
of Sales. 

Attach yourself more to affections than to 
reasonings. 

If you experience dryness, temptation, weari- 
ness, — patience, courage 1 Remain to the end 
in the presence of God ; it is then that medi- 
tation, in the form of prayer, is useful. 



Aids of the Novitiate. 273 

Love to prolong your pious colloquies with 
Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin ; remem- 
ber that meditation is, particularly, converse with 
God. — St. Ignatius. 

The object of all meditation should be to 
render you more faithful to your duties : more 
humble, more obedient, more patient, more 
mortified. . . Do not estimate the value of 
your meditations by the consolations you ex- 
perience or the weariness you endure ; but by 
your good will at the end of it, and the efforts 
vou make to become better. 

It is not a question of feeling in meditation, 
but of will. Frequently the feeling does not 
depend upon us. God purposely takes it from 
us to make us know our poverty, to accustom us 
to the cross by interior dryness, and to purify 
us by keeping us attached to Him without this 
sensible consolation. He will restore it to us, 
from time to time, in compassion for our weak- 
ness. — Fenelon. 



Remain with God, not in formal converse, 
as with people whom we receive ceremoniously 



274 Aids of the Novitiate. 

and with whom we exchange measured com- 
pliments ; but as with a good friend who in- 
conveniences us in no way, and to whom we are 
no inconvenience. We see one another. We 
talk, we listen, we are silent ; contented to be 
in each other's society without saying anything; 
the two hearts repose and are mirrored in each 
other, — they form but one; we do not measure 
what we say ; we take no pains to insinuate, to 
lead to any subject, we simply speak as we feel 
and without any special order ; we are as con- 
tented the day we have said little as the day 
we have had much to say. We must not visit 
God, to render Him a transitory duty; we must 
live with Him in the familiarity of servants, or 
rather cbildren. Be with Him like a child 
with its father ; and thus you never grow weary 
in His presence. — Fenelon. 

You do nothing at meditation you say ; but 
what is it, then, that you would do if it is not 
what you are doing : which is presenting and 
representing to God your nothingness and your 
misery ? The most effective speech a beggar 
can make us is to expose to our sight his sores 
and his necessities. But sometimes you do 



Aids of the Novitiate. 275 

not even do this, but remain before Him like a 
phantom and a statue. Well, it is no little thing 
to remain in this way before Him. In the pala- 
ces of princes and kings there are statues which 
serve only to please the eyes of the prince ; be 
satisfied to perform a like service in the presence 
of God ; He will animate the statue when He 
pleaseth. St. Francis of Sales. 

When your mind is fatigued make use of 
the book in which you have prepared your 
meditation; read for a moment, then meditate, 
and continue in this way till the end of the 
prescribed time. 

You must always have the book in your 
hand, you say, otherwise you do nothing. Then 
let it be book in hand, and whether you have 
recourse to it from time to time or do with- 
out it, what matters it, if you pray and unite 
yourself to Our Lord ? 

II. 

PARTICULAR EXAMEN. 

Those who neglect particular examen remain 
stationary, or even recede in the path of virtue; 



276 Aids of the Novitiate. 

while those who acquit themselves of it with 
faithful earnestness, necessarily advance. 

Particular examen, faithfully practised but 
for the space of a month, gives at the end of 
that time astonishing results. 

It consists, as you know, in determining a 
fault or habit we wish to destroy, and render- 
ing an account to ourselves once a day of the 
struggles we have had to sustain against it, 
of the victories we have gained over it, or the 
number of times we have fallen into it. 

Choose, then, in concert with your mistress, 
one of your defects, — attack, first, those which 
offend and scandalize your neighbor. 

Do not change the subject of your examen 
till you have destroyed, or visibly weakened, 
the fault which was pointed out to you, and 
never do it without authority. 

If it be judged wise, and the custom be 
established in the community, mark, every day, 
in one manner or another, and very exactly, 
the results of your examen ; and oblige your- 
self to present to your mistress, every week, or 
at least once a month, the leaf upon which you 
shall have written these results. 



Aids of the Novitiate. 27 J 

Impose upon yourself each day some morti- 
fications in relation to the fault you wish to 
conquer or the virtue you wish to acquire. 

Do not be satisfied with sighing before God 
over your infidelities, your weakness, your cow- 
ardice ; punish yourself. If you get a thorn in 
your hand, all the dressing in the world will 
not cure the wound it has made ; you must 
first pluck out the thorn. 

Particular examen may be made during 
one's visit to the Blessed Sacrament if one has 
no other fixed time for it. 

Method of particular examen. 

1st. Place yourself in the presence of God, 
and ask of Him light to know your sins, your 
faults, your imperfections; grace to understand 
their hideousness, and to see the harm they 
do ; strength, finally, to pluck them from your 
heart. 

2d. Ask of yourself, hour by hour, a strict 
account of the occasions you have resisted, 
the number of your falls, the weaknesses with 
which you reproached yourself, the victories 
you have gained. 



278 Aids of the Novitiate. 

3d. Mark the number of your falls and your 
victories, if your mistress have so counselled you. 

4th. Reflect for a few moments how this 
fault will increase your suffering in purgatory 
or diminish your glory in heaven, — that it may, 
gradually, even lead you to mortal sin, — that 
it renders you incapable of rising to the perfec- 
tion God asks of you,— that it prevents you 
from accomplishing the good for which God 
destines you, — that it grieves the Holy Spirit, 
— that it wounds the heart of Jesus, — that it 
estranges the tender affection of the Blessed 
Virgin, — that it deprives you of the sweetness 
of Holy Communion. 

5th. Will not such considerations lead you 
to sincerely ask pardon of God, and impel you 
to make some acts of expiation ? 

6th. Add a fervent prayer to Jesus, to Mary, 
to your Angel Guardian; and sincerely promise 
God that you will do better to-morrow. 

7th. Impose upon yourself two or three acts 
of mortification, according to the number of 
your faults : for example, strict silence during 
a certain occupation ; stricter modesty of the 
eyes in passing a particular place ; rendering 



Aids of the Novitiate. 279 

some service to a companion whom you like 
less than the others; reciting a particular 
prayer, kneeling erect without any support, etc. 



III. 

MONTHLY RETREAT. 

" Religious houses," says Father Bautrand, 
"are composed of fervent, tepid, sometimes, 
defective souls." 

In all these states, one needs to frequently 
enter into oneself : the perfect souls to perse- 
vere, the tepid souls to rouse themselves, the 
irregular souls to re-enter the path from which 
they have wandered. 

Behold why there have been established in 
all communities, daily examen, weekly confess- 
ion, monthly retreat ; finally, a longer retreat 
once a year. 

"There is no clock, however good it may be, 
that does not need to be wound and regulated/' 
says St. Francis of Sales. "It is necessary, 
from time to time, to take all the pieces apart, 



280 Aids of the Novitiate. 

and remove the rust which has gathered on 
them, in order to rectify the parts which have 
become stiff, and replace those which are worn. 

He who has a true care for his heart regu- 
lates it in like manner before God ; and to this 
end he should frequently observe its condition, 
rectify and repair it, by examining each piece 
separately — that is, each passion and affection, in 
order to remedy the faults which are found in 
it — and, like the watch-maker, put a drop of 
fine oil on all the wheels, springs and machin- 
ery of his watch, in order to make it work more 
easily and preserve it from rust. This exercise 
will repair your forces weakened by time, inflame 
your heart, revive your good resolutions and 
cause the virtues of your soul to flourish again. " 

The exercises of the monthly retreat are tra- 
ced in the Directory of each community; we 
only indicate here an examen which we counsel 
you to read reflectively, either before the Bless- 
ed Sacrament, or during the evening medita- ' 
tion. It is well, from time to time, to recall in 
detail all one's obligations. This examen is, 
doubtless, incomplete, but it is sufficient to 
recall our duties. 



Aids of the Novitiate. 281 

DUTIES OF VOCATION AND CARE OF PERFECTION. 

What idea have I of my vocation ? Have I 
strengthened it by the faithful accomplishment 
of my duties ? 

Have I for it the esteem which it merits, and 
the gratitude which it should inspire in me ? 

Is my principal object to advance in the way 
of perfection ? 

Are my dispositions in regard to my amend- 
ment, or my advancement, what they were in 
the first days of my Novitiate ? 

What progress have I made in Christian or 
religious virtues ? 

Is my faith simple, lively and efficacious ? 
— my hope firm, without discouragement or 
presumption ? 

What is my love for God ? Is there not in 
my heart some irregular attachment to crea- 
tures? Ambition, too tender friendships, al- 
ways produce this unhappy effect. 

Am I zealous for God's glory ? Am I grieved 
at the outrages which He receives ? Have I 
that delicacy of conscience which makes a good 
religious tremble at even the appearance of evil ? 



282 Aids of the Novitiate. 

Have I not indulged in many faults for the 
reason that they were but venial sins ? Have 
I not exposed myself to the risk of committing 
some grave fault ? 

Am I united with God ? Do I, remembering 
His presence, live in conformity to His holy 
will ? 

Examine particularly, your efforts against 
your predominant passion, your progress in the 
virtue you were recommended to acquire. 
Examine particularly, whether your little pro- 
gress has not afforded your soul a motive of 
discouragement. 

IN REGARD TO POVERTY. * 

Have I received, taken, bought or borrowed 
anything without permission ? Have I kept 
anything without authority ; anything which I 
retained through an ill-regulated attachment ; 

* If the novice is not bound to practise poverty and 
obedience, in virtue of the vows which she has not yet 
taken, she is bound in virtue of the rule ; and also to 
prepare herself for the obligation which she intends 
to contract. 



Aids of the Novitiate. 283 

anything which was superfluous and uncon- 
formable with poverty? In all such cases, I 
must strip myself of these objects without delay, 
and return to the strictness of holy poverty. 
Do I take care of all that is given for my use, 
as belonging to religion and Our Lord ? Do 
I love poverty as a mother rejoicing to wear its 
livery and to experience its effects ? Does it 
not happen that I seek the best for myself, 
leaving the remains to others ? 

TN REGARD TO CHASTITY. 

Am I faithful in guarding my thoughts, my 
heart and my senses ? Have I permitted my- 
self anything which could be for me, at least, 
an occasion of trouble? Am I faithful to 
promptly have recourse to God, the moment 
the enemy attacks me ? Have I carefully 
struggled against too natural affections ? Have 
I avoided all familiarity, all too tender de- 
monstrations? How have I observed religious 
temperance ? Do I do all that depends upon 
me, to imitate the purity of the angels in body 
and soul ? 



284 Aids of the Novitiate. 



IN REGARD TO OBEDIENCE. 

In my obedience is there a spirit of faith and 
equal submission of the will and judgment ? 

Do I behold God in the person of my su- 
periors ? 

Have, I listened to their voice as to that of 
God ? (This disposition is the soul of obe- 
dience. ) Do I do nothing covertly P Do I 
obey promptly, at the first sign, at the first 
sound of the bell ? Have I relinquished such 
an employment, such a residence, at the first 
order, and even at the first intimation, remem- 
bering that I must be indifferent to everything 
here below except the will of God expressed 
through the will of my superiors ? 

Have I not, on the contrary, indulged in re- 
flections, jests, criticisms, murmurs against the 
cause, or the accessory of the order, or the 
person of the superior, thereby decreasing, in 
my own mind and that of others, the respect 
which is due her ? 

Is my intercourse with my superiors frank 
and loving ? 



Aids of the Novitiate. 285 

Am I faithful to observe all my rules, or may 
there not be one which I have formally ex- 
cluded from my obedience, or the violation of 
which has become habitual with me ? Have 
I, above all, esteemed and followed the rule 
of silence, so important for the community in 
general and myself in particular ? 

IN REGARD TO HUMILITY. 

How do I stand in regard to humility ? 
Have I wounded it by boasting, by the suscep- 
tibility of pride, by self conceit, or by haughti- 
ness toward my sisters ? Have I sought esteem 
and praise, instead of loving neglect and humil- 
iations ? Have I acted through human respect ? 
Have I had too good an opinion of my talents 
and my virtues ? Have I not a habit of speak- 
ing of myself, of excusing myself? Am I faith- 
ful to acknowledge my faults with simplicity, 
to render an account of my conscience with 
that humility and child-like confidence which 
is so much the spirit of the rule ? Am I not 
disheartened when I do not succeed, when I 
am blamed ? Do I make frequent acts of 



286 Aids of the Novitiate. 

humility by offering myself for employments 
repugnant to nature? By at least accepting 
them with submission ? 



IN REGARD TO FRATERNAL CHARITY. 

I owe my sisters the most tender, the most 
cordial affection, esteem and good will; I should 
make every effort to promote the union of 
hearts. Have I done nothing which was con- 
trary to these duties ? May I not have allowed 
myself to yield to aversion, envy, malicious in- 
terpretations, resentment, disputes, anger ? 

Have I vigorously repelled that base jealousy 
which grieves at seeing others distinguished, is 
afflicted at their success and even their virtues ? 

I owe my neighbor, whosoever he may be, 
love, forbearance, pardon. 

Have I indulged in detraction against him, 
indiscreet reports, calumnies, revengeful de- 
sires, sallies of ill-humor, anything which 
could disedify or produce disunion ? Have I 
avoided correcting others without authority, 
or criticising my sisters ? Is my affection for 



Aids of the Novitiate. 287 

them founded on the love of Jesus. Is it gen- 
erous, practical, general without exception. 

Have I a horror of those wretched particular 
friendships which scandalize one's neighbor, 
divide the heart, and turn it from God who 
wishes to completely possess it ? 

Have I reflected on the pernicious results 
of scandal in a community, and the necessity 
of giving good example ? 

IN REGARD TO MORTIFICATION. 

Have I relaxed in any way as regards mortifi- 
cation ? Have I fulfilled with all integrity, and 
according to their spirit, the rules contrary to 
my natural inclinations ? What efforts have I 
made to attain the perfect observance of exte- 
rior modesty of the eyes in going from one place 
to another, and in all my proceedings ? In 
trying circumstances have I given no sign of 
impatience, anger, or at least of disturbance ? 
Have I, with courage and constancy, practised 
the mortifications and penances customary in 
the community ? Have I applied myself 
particularly to interior mortification and self- 



288 Aids of the Novitiate. 

denial ? Have I made efforts to reform my 
disposition? . .How have I received the trials 
sent by Providence ? Have I labored to acquire 
perfect conformity to the will of God ? Finally, 
have I had the spirit of mortification ; or, in 
other words, knowing that suffering is an ex- 
cellent means of expiating my faults, rooting 
out my vices, rendering me more like Jesus, 
have I loved and desired it ? 



IN REGARD TO PIOUS EXERCISES. 

How is it in regard to my religious exercises ? 
Have I made them with zeal and fidelity? 
Has it never happened that I omitted them 
through my own fault ? When obliged to defer 
them have I not afterwards performed them with 
negligence, or even totally neglected them ? 

And my meditation ; how is it in regard to 
preparation, following the method prescribed, 
the resolutions, the practical results ? What is 
the cause of my distractions r Is it negligence 
in the immediate preparation, or habitual dis- 
sipation ? 



Aids of the Novitiate. 289 

Do I carefully and profitably make the ex- 
amens, especially the particular examen ? 

How do I make my spiritual reading ? 

How do I assist at Mass ? 

Is there nothing relating to my confession 
and communions in which I could improve? 
What preparation do I bring to them ? What 
fruits do I gather from them ? 

Is my rosary piously recited ? 

What is my docility in following the counsels 
I receive ? Am I faithful to regard my mis- 
tress as holding the place of Jesus, as having 
been sent me by Him to conduct me according 
to the rule and spirit of the community ? 

Have I been faithful in seeking direction ? 
Have I presented myself at a fitting moment, 
when unable to go on the day or at the time 
prescribed ? 

How have I said my daily prayers, and par- 
ticularly the short ones before and after meals ? 

What graces would I not have received if I 
had been faithful to say all these short prayers 
well, and if I had been recollected in going 
from one exercise to another ? 



290 Aids of the Novitiate. 

IN REGARD TO EMPLOYMENT. 

Am I happy in the employment which has 
been confided to me ? Why am I not ? With 
a little more spirit of faith and love of God, 
would I not be happy ? Why can I not say to 
myself each morning : 1 am going to do what 
God asks of me? Have I fulfilled my office with 
zeal, activity and prudence ? 

Have I not wounded those who are engaged 
in the same employment with me? Have I 
helped them, borne with them, tried to make 
them contented ? 

Have I not allowed myself to yield to dis- 
couragement, sensitiveness, jealousy, vanity, 
too great eagerness ? 



IN REGARD TO ORDINARY ACTIONS AND THE USE- 
FUL EMPLOYMENT OF TIME. 

How do I perform my ordinary actions ? Do 
I work constantly for God ? Am I faithful to 
animate all my actions by a spirit of faith ? 
Am I persuaded that my perfection consists in 
performing my ordinary actions well ? Have 



I 

Aids of the Novitiate. 291 

I economized my time ? Is the order of my 
labors conformable to obedience ? Are my 
actions distinguished by pious diligence ; or 
rather by ill-regulated enthusiasm, slowness, 
indolence, idleness, loss of time ? 

How are my recreations, my walks, spent 
on holidays ? 

Am I careful to sanctify my repasts, my 
sleep, my corporal exercises ? 

After this examen, kneeling, recite the fol- 
lowing prayer : 

ACT OF RENOVATION. 

"It is necessary, then, that I should think 
of a pious renovation, which will cause me to 
re-enter the paths of perfection to which Thou, 
my God, dost call me. Here are the principal 
points which render this renovation absolutely 
necessary for me : 

"Renewal of fidelity in all my religious 
exercises ; renewal of purity of intention ; re- 
newal of preparation for the sacraments ; re- 
newal of inviolable fidelity to grace ; renewal 



292 Aids of the Novitiate. 

of dependence and complete submission to- 
wards my superiors ; renewal of gentleness, of 
charity, towards all without exception ; renewal 
of the generous accomplishment of the du-l 
ties of my employment ; renewal of absolute 
detachment of my heart, which is made for 
Thee alone." 

Then determine the particular resolutions 
you should take, and, offering them to God, 
say to Him from the depths of your heart : 

"Behold, O my God, my pious resolutions, 
and the new plan of life which I have resolved 
to follow in future. I owe this pious renovation 
to the sanctity of the state which I have em- 
braced ; I owe it to the gratitude with which I 
am inspired by the many graces which I have 
received ; I owe it to the sorrow and repar- 
ation required for the many faults which I have 
committed ; I owe it to the edification of those 
persons with whom I have the happiness to 
live ; I owe it to the care of my perfection 
which, alas, I have neglected ; I owe it, finally, 
to my preparation for eternity, where I shall 
enter, perhaps, before another renovation pre- 
sents itself. I understand what I have to fear 



■Aids of the Novitiate. 293 

from my weakness, after the sad experience I 
have had ; after so many other renovations 
when I made Thee the same promises ; but 
this one, I trust, will be more efficacious ; help 
me anew with Thy grace, O my God ! I 
promise Thee, with Thy assistance, a more 
constant fidelity in the performance of my 
duties ; from this moment, I will daily labor 
to attain it ; may I never swerve from this 
resolution during my life. Holy Virgin, St. 
Joseph, my good Angel, my holy protectors, 
keep me faithful to these resolutions." 

When finishing, endeavor to foresee the 
means best fitted to insure your complete ren- 
ovation. Place all your hope in God, and 
ardently resume your course without allowing 
yourself to be cast down at the sight of your 
misery however great it may be. 



IV. 



PARTICULAR RULE. 

1st, Particular regulation is that which each 
novice traces for herself, and which she writes 
in a special book, for the purpose of reading it 



294 Aids of the Novitiate. 

from time to time. In this book she deter- 
mines the employment of every moment of the 
day which is not given to the general exercises. 

2d, The intentions she proposes to herself 
for each one of her actions : rising, work, etc., 
in order to render them more holy and meri- 
torious. For she is aware, " that all the good 
works of the just soul, even its least action, 
performed with the assistance of God's grace, 
truly acquire for it, in virtue of the merits of 
Jesus Christ, of whom it is a living member, 
an increase of grace here below, and prepare 
for it a new degree of glory in heaven. " — Council 
of Trent. 

3d, She marks the special virtues which she 
wishes to acquire, her particular devotions, and 
the mortifications she purposes to impose upon 
herself. 

4th, She marks the subject of her partic- 
ular examen which she has had her mistress 
point out to her, and the manner in which it 
should be made ; her occupations during Mass, 
the rosary, the visit to the Blessed Sacrament. 

5 th, She notes the anniversaries of graces 
which she has received ; her resolutions o 



Aids of the Novitiate. 295 

the monthly retreat ; the circumstances under 
which she has been more deeply touched by 
God's love ; the thoughts which have impressed 
her during her meditation during instruction ; 
those counsels of her confessor which she has 
found most beneficial ; the counsels and re- 
proofs of her mistress, that she may bear in 
mind the fault she has to correct, the good 
examples she has before her eyes. 

This book should be made only with the 
assent of the mistress, to whom it should be 
presented from time to time, and who has the 
right to ask for it if she so desire. 

Written simply and unaffectedly, without a 
desire of being appreciated, (which the mistress 
however will soon see and will easily know how 
to repress, ) this little book may be very useful 
in times of discouragement and weariness, when 
temptation or several days of laxity make the 
Saviour s yoke seem very heavy ; the poor novice 
or religious, on reading expressions of former 
happiness, may ask herself : Is it God who has 
changed, or have I? 



296 Aids of the Novitiate. 

EXTERIOR AIDS. 

The Rule. 

The rule! the rule I Such should be the cry 
of the soul which feels that it is wandering, and 
would not be completely lost. 

The rule ! the rule ! should be the cry of the 
soul which feels that it is falling, and would 
rise again ! The rule in religious houses is to 
the soul like a path traced through an un- 
known desert ; it leads directly to the end, and 
can be followed without danger or fear of be- 
ing deceived. 

The rule, like thoseparafie/s placed on either 
side of a bridge over a deep river, preserve one 
from falling, keep one in the path, and help 
one to rise when he falls. And God Himself 
has traced this pathway, has placed this guard 
on the edge of the precipice. 

Oh ! how fortunate you are, sister, to have 
been placed by God in this path which neces- 
sarily leads you to heaven ! 

Then love your rule, — appreciate it, — ob- 
serve it ! 



Aids of the Novitiate. 297 

MOTIVES WHICH SHOULD LEAD YOU TO OBSERVE 
THE RULE. 

I St. Observing the rule will render you pleasing 
in the eyes of God, 

It is the expression of His will, — you are 
assured of this by the approbation which the 
Church has given to it; now, do you not see 
that by faithfully observing it, you give God 
every moment of the day and night a proof 
of your love : you glorify Him ; you acknowl- 
edge His dominion over you ; you seek to please 
Him ; you imitate Jesus who only sought to 
do the will of His Father ? 

At each call from God you are ready to say 
to Him with a joyful heart : I am here, Master, 
what wouldst Thou that I do ? And God, after 
each action done to please Him, will say of 
you as He did of Jesus : Behold my well-beloved 
daughter in whom I am well pleased! 

2d. Observing the rule will cause you to be 

respected. 

It may doubtless happen by the permission 
of God, that, in spite of your piety and your 



298 Aids of the Novitiate. 

fervor, you will not have the sympathy of your 
sisters ; but rest assured that if you have been 
faithful, through a spirit of faith, and without 
constraint or affectation, there is not one who 
in the depth of her heart does not esteem you 
and wish to imitate you. 

What do you yourself think of the sisters 
whom you know are very faithful ? Would 
you not go to them for counsel rather than to 
any of the others ? 

And even were you not appreciated, do you 
not feel that you are pleasing to God, and does 
not that satisfy you ? 

3d. Observing the rule will make you happy. 

No, sister, God will never be outdone in gen- 
erosity ; the more you give Him, the more He 
will return to you; the more you endeavor to 
serve Him, to be faithful to Him — to avoid what 
displeases Him ; the more He will console you, 
the more He will protect you, the more He 
will reward you ! 

And protected by God, what could trouble 
you ? 



Aids of the Novitiate. 299 

Could fear of the future ? But is not the 
thought of God's providence sufficient to make 
you hope always and in spite of everything ? 
Sister, you have a better right than all others to 
rely upon this providence, since God can rely 
upon you ; you will always find God ready to 
care for you, because God always finds you 
ready to obey Him. 

Could suffering ? But does not the sight of 
your crucifix encourage you ? And does not 
Jesus say to your heart : / am with thee, since 
thou hast chosen Me. Courage ! the trials will 
pass; an eternity of joy is coming / 

Could the sacrifices exacted by obedience? — 
But you know well — you who would not break 
one of the links, even the smallest which binds 
you to Jesus — you well know that this divine 
Master will follow you everywhere ; and is it 
not always paradise where Jesus dwells ? 

We will not speak of the affection of your 
mistress, which will be no less wanting to you ; 
and it will be in sweet proportion as you feel 
you have merited it. 



300 Aids of the Novitiate. 

4 th. Observing the rule will sanctify you. 

Benedict XIV. has promised to canonize the 
novice who, during the Novitiate, will have 
perfectly observed the rules of the Institute. 

It is because there is nothing more sanctify- 
ing than the observance of a rule. Embracing 
as it does every moment of the day and night, 
every act which may be performed, it leaves 
nothing to caprice, nothing to the senses, 
nothing to self-will. It causes one to act ac- 
cording to the orders of God, in the presence 
of God, in union with God, with the intention 
of pleasing God. Is it not in this that sanctity 
consists ? 



MANNER IN WHICH THE RULE SHOULD BE OB- 
SERVED. 

I st. The rule should be observed completely. 

All that comes from God is equally worthy 
of respect ; and obedience raises everything, 
ennobles everything, renders everything meri- 
torious. 



Aids of the Novitiate. 301 

Oh ! do not amuse yourselves with drawing 
distinctions between what appears to you impor- 
tant and what appears a small matter; between 
what appears to you to be commanded and what 
seems to be only counselled. 

Do not authorize yourself to transgress an 
observance under pretext that the rule does not 
oblige under pain of sin. No ; doubtless dif- 
ferent points of the rule do not oblige under 
pain of sin, but you well know — all the saints 
tell you — that the motive which leads you to 
voluntarily transgress this observance ifc a sin ; 
because the motive is always sloth, pride, or 
sensuality. And were there no sin, is it noth- 
ing to accustom yourself to immortification 
and independence? 

2d. The rule should be observed punctually. 

1st, In regard to time; doing the action pre- 
scribed at the time fixed for it, and regard- 
ing the clock which calls you as the voice of 
Jesus ; it is He who wishes that we should rise 
at such an hour, that we should go to recrea- 
tion, to work, to the chapel. . . Let us not 
despise His call. 



3<32 Aids of the Novitiate. 

2d. In regard to the manner; in spite of self- 
love which whispers that we would do better 
another way, — that we would finish sooner, — 
that they do not know the new methods in the 
community, etc. 

3d. In regard to place: never going but where 
we should, and where we are allowed to be, 
— never withdrawing from surveillance, and 
manifesting no annoyance when we are sent 
from one place to another. 

3d. The rule should be observed lovingly. 

And it will be, if you regard it as the voice 
of God calling you, directing you, instructing 
you, commanding you. 

Oh 1 if you had lived in the time of this good 
Master, and, having accepted you among His 
followers He had given you the same counsels 
that are given you in the Novitiate, with what 
joy and happiness you would have obeyed ! 

Sister, it is still He who commands you I 






Aids of the Novitiate. 303 



PRAYERS IN COMMON. 

This support is wanting to you in the world; 
in the community, it will be for you a source 
of grace and consolation. 

Of grace : because to this prayer is attached 
the special promise, that God will be in the 
midst of those who are thus united in His 
name ; and because when God comes expressly, 
so to speak, He always, according to the saints, 
leaves after Him a token of His love. 

Of consolation: because your own prayer, 
weak, perhaps slothful and distracted, will 
be strengthened and animated by ihe fervent 
prayer of your sisters. Oh ! how sweet it is to 
be able to say during prayer, even though we 
feel we are guilty and merit not to be heard : 
"God willingly hears this common prayer to 
which I unite mine ; the voice of the just 
ascends higher than the voice of the guilty. " 

We will have to develop these thoughts in 
our Book for the Professed, when we speak of 
the divine office ; we will only recommend you 
here not to absent yourself from common prayer 



304 Aids of the Novitiate. 

unless for real and serious reasons. What graces 
are lost, from having wished to follow a 
particular attraction which led us to separate 
ourselves from the community, under pretext 
that we are more recollected when we prayed 
by ourselves 1 

II. 

DIRECTION. 

"Every month," says St. Francis of Sales,' 
speaking to his religious, "the sisters should 
briefly and summarily discover their hearts to 
the superior, and in all simplicity and faithful 
confidence show her its secret folds, with the 
same sincerity and candor that a child would 
show its mother how it had been stung by a 
wasp ; and by this means they will render an 
account of their advancement and progress, as 
well as of their losses and failings, in the exer- 
cises of prayer, virtue, and the spiritual life ; 
manifesting, also, their temptations and in- 
terior troubles, that they may be not only con- 
soled, but also strengthened and humbled." 

"Happy those/' adds the saint, " who in- 



Aids of the Novitiate. 305 

genuously practise this article,* which teaches 
a portion of the spiritual infancy so much re- 
commended by Our Saviour, and which also 
gives and preserves true tranquillity of mind." 

We will make only a few remarks on this 
important subject of direction, having pub- 
lished a small work in which all the questions 
relating to it are treated. f 

Direction is not a confession, it consists of 
confidences ; in it we do not speak of what 
is precisely matter of absolution, but of that 
which requires counsel, guidance, and a par- 
ticular manner of proceeding. 

It is not as a criminal that the sister comes 
to unveil her soul, but as an imperfect soul 
needing to be shown the means of perfecting 
itself. 

A novice, more than all others, needs direc- 
tion. The religious life is all new to her ; 
all that she sees, all that she hears, astonishes 
her, and makes her desire to be enlightened 



*This should be read in reference to a decree of 
Pius IX. — Translator. 

t See La Direction Spirituelle, by the author of Petit 
Livre des Superieures and Novices' Little Manual. 



306 Aids of the Novitiate. 

upon a multitude of details which she needs 
to know, — the questions which press into her 
soul form matter of direction. The novice 
easily experiences uneasiness, disgust, weari- 
ness, from a multitude of causes ; at times there 
are even regrets in this poor heart which was 
so strong in the hour of sacrifice, and believ- 
ed that its strength could never be shaken. . . . 
Must there not be some outpouring of these 
trials and this weariness ? This outpouring is 
matter of direction. 

The novice understands piety as it is fre- 
quently understood in the world : with self- 
chosen, sweet, easy, independent practices, free 
from any precise rule, — free particularly from 
sacrifices and contradictions ; and she is griev- 
ed at not being able to pray as much, at finding 
herself restricted to a certain manner of prayer 
which she does not like, at no longer feel- 
ing any relish for Holy Communion, and she 
becomes discouraged and alarmed. . . To 
calm this agitation, must she not expose the 
state of her soul ? This exposition is matter of 
direction. 

The novice hears reading and instructions 



Aids of the Novitiate. 307 

which are all new to her mind: they speak of 
the maladies of the soul ; of the means of rec- 
ognizing them; of the remedies to be applied 
to them; of the obligations religious are under 
to become perfect, etc. . . Books never give 
but generalities ; must she not have that ex- 
plained which she only partially understands ? 
— These explanations are matter of direction. 

The manner of making our meditation ; the 
joys, the consolations, or the weariness we 
experience in it ; the happiness we experience 
at prayer, at office ; the disrelish which for 
some time has made this exercise tiresome to 
us ; the virtues to which we apply ourselves ; 
the fruit we gather from Holy Communion, — 
all these things, and all that regards the soul, 
the mind, the body — except that which is sin, 
may be matter for direction. Look upon your 
mistress as a Mother whom God has given you 
to protect you during your religious infancy. * 

* "The novices," says St. Francis of Sales, " should 
cordially love their mistress, and feel in her a most 
filial confidence accompanied with respect ; manifest- 
ing to her their gratitude, and acknowledgment of her 
labor in training their minds." 



308 Aids of the Novitiate. 



III. 

CHAPTER OF FAULTS. 

We call chapter of faults, or simply chapter, 
the periodical reunions of all the community, 
during which each novice makes a public ac- 
knowledgment of her exterior faults against 
the rule, listens while her sisters point out to 
her the faults she may not have perceived, and 
accepts, finally, from the superior, a reproof and 
a penance. 

For many years, and, sometimes, during all 
their religious life, there is nothing certain 
temperaments dread so much as chapter. Self- 
love makes it so hard to accuse ourselves, and 
be publicly accused ! 

But there is nothing more efficacious, or 
which contributes more powerfully to prevent 
falls and correct defects. 

We read in the life of St. Dominick, that 
one day the devil appeared to him in human 
form. The saint had a revelation of the pres- 
ence of the spirit of darkness. 

" You are the enraged enemy of souls," he 



Aids of the Novitiate. 309 



said to him ; " then what are you doing in this 
monasteiy ?" 

"I am pursuing my office of tempter, and 
not fruitlessly either." 

" What do you effect in the chapel ?" 
11 1 endeavor to have the religious come late, 
to dissipate their fervor, and give them worldly 
thoughts." 

" What do you do in the parlor ?" 
•'The parlor belongs to me. There I urge 
them to immoderate mirth ; I impel them to 
idle words, to murmurs. . . Your religious 
come there and lose all they have gained else- 
where." 

St. Dominick having conducted the devil to 
the room where chapter was usually held, the 
proud spirit refused to enter. "That room," 
he explained, " is hell to me ; there your broth- 
ers confess the evil I have caused them to do ; 
and this avowal which covers them with con- 
fusion, strengthens them against my attacks for 
several days." 

To profit of chapter, we must prepare ourselves 
for it by prayer, and say to ourselves energet- 
ically : / wish to humble myself ; we must 



310 Aids of the Novitiate. 

acknowledge our fault briefly, and without a 
word of excuse ; then wait patiently. 

We must listen calmly, (I dare not say joy- 
fully,) to the companion who points out a fault 
to us ; subdue by an act of the love of God the 
interior revolt which we sometimes experience, 
particularly when we think that our sister is 
mistaken; oblige ourselves to recite a prayer 
for her who accuses us; and, chapter being 
ended, forbid ourselves any remark upon what 
has passed or been said. 

' ' The religious " says F. St. Jure, "who loves 
correction will soon be perfect ; she who hates 
it will never be." 

To tell the faults of another at chapter is fre- 
quently more difficult than to hear our own 
faults repeated ; it requires courage, very pure 
friendship, and a great love of duty. The fear 
of offending or estranging a companion often 
keeps us silent. Doubtless it must be done 
with much prudence, much tact; we must nev- 
er absolutely affirm anything, nor must we say 
anything of a nature to make another blush or 
humiliate her too much, but let us be simple, 
charitable ; there is always something in the 



Aids of the Novitiate. 311 

tone of the person who really loves his neigh- 
bor, and in his manner of expressing himself, 
which prevents his censures from producing 
a bad impression. 

It is customary in some communities for the 
mistress of novices to give each of her sisters a 
companion, who, under the name of assistant 
or admonitrix, is charged to point out to her, 
in private, every week, the faults into which she 
has fallen. This practice is a great assistance, 
and we earnestly commend it in the houses 
where it is practised. Correction, on the part 
of a virtuous friend, is more easily accepted; 
given privately it does not irritate self-love, and 
tempered by affection it does not discourage us. 



IV. 

SPIRITUAL READING. 

In prayer, we speak to God ; in spiritual 
reading, it is God who speaks to us. 

A good book sometimes effects in us what 
a familiar conversation fails to do ; particularly 
when there is question of pointing out to us 



312 Aids of the Novitiate. 

a humiliating fault which another has not the 
courage to mention, for fear of irritating us. 

Every pious reading, like every instruction, 
always contains, by a special grace, something 
useful to each one of those who hear it in a 
spirit of faith. 

Go, then, to the reading and to the instruc- 
tions, with the thought that God is about to 
give you a special counsel; and be watchful that 
it does not pass without your profiting by it. 

It is unnecessary to speak to you about 
choosing your reading. In the Novitiate you 
can neither retain or read any book without 
permission. Those which are publicly read are 
not selected by you, and those which are lent 
you have been specially chosen in reference to 
the wants of your soul. Do not read with 
avidity the books your mistress lends you, nor 
with childish vanity pride yourself upon fin- 
ishing a volume each week. Ask your mis- 
tress if it would not be well for you to make a 
selection of the thoughts which will have im- 
pressed you. 

Do not lend to your companions, without 
permission, the book which has been given 



Aids of the Novitiate. 313 

for you ; and do not ask to read those which 
have been lent them. 

If you are permitted the use of any books, 
be careful of them, love them ; for it is not 
without a purpose that God permits a certain 
book to be given to you ; be always ready, how- 
ever, to make the sacrifice of it. 

And if your mistress permit you to keep this 
(l Novices Little Manual" ask God, when you 
read it, to grant that the book may do you 
good, and pray sometimes for the author. 



* # 
* 



As a summary of the preceding chapter we 
will transcribe here one of the most charming 
pages from St. Francis of Sales : 

A sister of Annecy, Sister Simplicienne, 
had the simplicity to ask the holy bishop this 
ingenuous question : 

My Lord, if you were a religious among us, 
what would you do that you might soon become 
perfect? 

And the amiable saint replied : 

"It seems to me that, with the grace of 



314 Aids of the Novitiate. 

God, I would be so attentive to the practice 
of the least and smallest observance, that by 
this means I would gain the heart of God. 

' ' I would observe silence well, but I would 
also speak sometimes, even during silence ; I 
mean I would always speak when charity re- 
quired it, but never otherwise. 

"I would speak very gently, because it is 
commanded by the constitutions; I would open 
and shut the doors very softly, because our 
mother wishes it, and we are anxious to do all 
that we know she desires. 

" I would keep my eyes carefully cast down, 
and I would walk very softly; for, my dear 
daughter, God and His angels are always 
looking at us, and they love those extremely 
who are doing right. 

"If I were employed upon anything, or a 
charge were given me, I would love it very 
much, and I would try to be very faithful to 
it. If no employment were given me, and I 
were set aside, I would not concern myself 
about anything whatever but practising obedi- 
ence well and loving Our Lord well. 

" Oh ! it seems to me that I would love Him, 



Aids of the Novitiate. 315 

this good God, with all my heart ; and that I 
would diligently apply my mind to observing 
the rules and constitutions faithfully. 

" Oh yes, my daughter, we must certainly do 
it to the best of our power, for was it not for 
that, that you and I became religious ? I am 
truly very glad that there is a sister here who 
is willing to be a religious in my place, and I 
am much pleased that it is Sister Simplicienne, 
for I love her very much. 

" It is further my opinion, that I would be 
always very cheerful, and that I would always 
avoid over-eagerness. That, thank God, I do 
already ; for I never hurry. 

" I would consider myself very small and in- 
significant ; I would humble myself and make 
acts of humility, according as I encountered 
the occasions ; and if 1 were not humble, I 
would at least be humbled at my want of 
humility. 

" I would do all that is possible to keep my- 
self in the presence of God, and to do all my 
actions for love of Him ; for thus, my daughter, 
are we taught to do here. And what have we 
but that to do in this world ? Nothing at all. 



316 Aids of the Novitiate. 

"We know all that is required, if we know 
that. Bat, my daughter Simplicienne, do you 
know what I would still do? I hope that I 
would willingly let them do with me all that 
they wished, and I would frequently read in 
our constitutions the chapter on modesty and 
humility. . . Oh, my dear daughter, it is very 
necessary to read them.'' 



nrrrrm 



CHAPTER XL 



TEMPTATIONS WHICH THE DEVIL SUG- 
GESTS DURING THE NOVITIATE. 

Many young girls imagine, that once they 
have entered a religious house they will no 
longer be tempted as they were in trie world ; 
and, during the first days, as their fervor, the 
total change of occupation, the novelty of the 
exercises which fill their day, the almost con- 
tinual labor to which they are constrained, 
absorb their thoughts they rejoice that they 
are no longer subject to sensuality and to 
evil thoughts, to vanity and a desire to please ; 
and they believe it will always be thus. But, 
after a few weeks, the novelty wears off; and 
the novice finds that the self of former times 
returns, and she feels all the old temptations ; 
and, being inexperienced, and never imagining 
that one could be so tempted in a religious 
house, she is disquieted, grieved, dishearten- 
ed, and concludes at once that God does not 
wish her. i 



318 Temptations. 

Go simply, and without fear to your confess- 
or, and tell him all you feel; profit of the 
occasion to make known to him, if you have 
not done so already, what the state of your soul 
was before entering the community, as this will 
make his counsels more useful ;* faithfully 
follow all his advice. Your confessor has 
special grace for reassuring you, enlightening 
you, and for indicating to you the means of 
resisting the Evil One. 

We would not in this chapter speak of those 
temptations which God permits in the Novi- 
tiate as well as after profession, but of a few 
temptations, peculiar to the time of the Nov- 
itiate, which the devil suggests to the novice, 
in order to overthrow her vocation ; while God 
permits them, in order to strengthen it by 
obliging her to show greater love for Him. 

* It is customary on entering a community, to make 
a general confession to the confessor of the house. 
Some directors, without obliging it, recommend this 
act of humility to the postulant, which may be very 
useful in enlightening the confessor. However, it is 
always for the confessor to judge the fitness of a 
general confession. 



Temptations. 



3*9 



Your family loved you so much, and now you 
ungratefully leave them ! — Trials will come to 
your father and mother, and you will not be with 
them to console them ! — Sickness will overtake them; 
in vain will they wish you near their pillow I 

This is the most painful as well as the most 
frequent temptation, which rends the heart of 
the novice, and sometimes saddens her to tears. 
To overcome it, call to your assistance the 
thoughts of faith which gave you courage to 
leave your father and mother. Human rea- 
sons are powerless here. 

It is only before the Blessed Sacrament and 
in Holy Communion that you will appease 
these sorrowful thoughts. 

Oh ! yes, yes, your parents love you, but 
God loves you still more ; and if God call on 
the one side and your parents on the other, 
whom must you obey ? Repeat those, doubt- 
less, heart-rending but solemn words : He 
that loveth father and mother more than me is 
not worthy of me. 

God is not ungrateful, rest assured of this ; 
He will take your place with your father and 
mother; He will not let them want for the 



320 Temptations. 

assistance which you would have given ; He 
will help them, and will not let them be de- 
serted. God, in a measure, owes it to you ; 
rely upon Him. 

This separation which is a continual sacri- 
fice, gives you a right to obtain continual graces. 
Listen : Every one that hath left house, or brethren, 
or sisters, or father, cr mother, or wife, or chil- 
dren, or lands, for my names sake, shall receive 
an hundred fold, and possess life everlasting. An 
hundred fold in this world! Now, what do 
you wish in this world ? Above all, do you 
not desire for your parents peace, happiness 
sanctity ? Sister, you will — you will have all 
this. 

Pray for your father and mother ; frequently 
ask your dear Saviour to go to them, to console 
them and strengthen them. Speak to them of 
heaven when you see them, and live in peace. 
God will take your place toward them, and 
for your sake who have left them for Him, He 
will give them such abundant grace that they 
will be sanctified, and one day in heaven they 
will thank you for this separation which now 
costs them so many tears. 



Temptations. 



321 



Your health will not permit you to remain here, 
it will soon give way ; at an early age it will be 
completely broken, and then what will you be good 
for? — To suffer and make others suffer,— you 
had much better leave. 

Reply as all the saints have : 

1st. I have not entered religion for the sake 
of my health or to preserve it, but to sanctify 
myself, and, particularly, to die well. 

2d. I came with an earnest desire and good 
will ; I made known to my superiors my tem- 
perament and its weaknesses ; if they judge I 
can be useful in the community, they will keep 
me ; if they see I can not be of use, they will 
tell me so ; therefore, I have only to wait their 
decision. 

3d. Doubtless I shall be overtaken with in- 
firmities, but would I be free from them in the 
world ? 

Here, at /least I shall have the advantage of 
being able to say to God : // was to serve Thee 
better that I became ill. — Is not this consoling ? 



322 Temptations. 



II. 



It is a hard tife: one spent in total dependence 
on the will of another ; a whole life spent in an 
employment distasteful to my nature; a whole life 
spent with dispositions in antipathy with mine ; 
a whole life of privation, inconvenience, restraint 

Tell the devil flatly, This is not true. 

Obedience has its sweetness which the devil 
does not know ; and more than once already 
have I tasted its consolations. Is not this 
thought alone, / am doing what God wishes, 
capable of making me endure all the bitterness 
of life? 

The employment may not always suit my 
disposition, but it is to the interest of my supe- 
riors that I should do it properly ; if therefore, 
they leave it to me, it is because I succeed 
with it, and we generally end by liking what 
we do well ; if I do not succeed they give me 
other work. 

It is impossible that I should find all dis- 
positions congenial to mine, but charity softens 
all that at first appears hard. We love one 



Temptations. 323 

another in a community quite as much, and 
far more sincerely than in the world. 

After all, it depends upon me to make 
myself loved. 

The words, privation, inconvenience, restraint, 
even were they true in this case, do not form 
all the religious life. Why look only at one 
side ? Is there then no inconvenience, no pri- 
vations, no restraint, in life in the world ? And 
in a religious life is there not rest, calm of 
conscience, peace of soul, hope of heaven ? 
Moreover, if it be sometimes hard to live in 
religion, it is always sweet to die there ; and 
is not a good death every thing ? 



III. 



You entered religion to live more calmly, and 
you enjoy less calm than when you were with your 
family ; you came here to be more pious, and you 
are much less so than when you were in the world ; 
you have less time to spend in church, you make 
fewer communions, you experience less fervor and 
piety. 



324 Temptations. 

No, I have not come to the convent precise- 
ly to live more calmly, but to live more holily ; 
now sanctity does not consist in exterior calm 
and leisure, but in submitting the will to the 
will of God ; and that is all I desire. If God 
wills that I should labor much, that I should 
not have a moment's repose, is He not Master? 
Then is not that exterior calm which gives us 
joy, the calm of the soul ? — and that, I know, 
will never be wanting to me, as long as I can 
heartily say, Fiat I 

I have less time to spend in church, but all 
my time is spent in doing the will of God, and 
is spent where God wills me to be, and this is 
much more consoling ! I communicate less 
frequently, but it is only through obedience 
that 1 abstain from Holy Communion ; God 
understands well that it is not through want 
of love for Him. When my superiors judge 
me worthy they will perhaps permit me daily 
communion, and then I will be compensated for 
this abstinence. 

I feel at times, it is true, very little sensible 
fervor, and it is a source of real trial to me ; 
bit I have been taught that fervor is not 



Temptations. 325 

sensibility, hut fidelity; that love does not consist 
in the joy we experience, but in the sacrifices 
we make for Him whom we love. 



IV. 



You would do more good in the world than 
here; how many ignorant souls of whom no 
one thinks, and whom you might instruct; how 
many abandoned children you could care for ; 
what good you could do in taking care of the 
neglected sick. . . Here you do all this, but it 
would be done by others without you, while no one 
thinks of the unfortunate ones of whom I speak. 

This is all very beautiful and very attractive, 
but is it what God wishes me to do ? If ir 
were, He would have had it made known to 
me, as He made it known to me that I was 
to come to the convent. 

It is all very beautiful, and I might even suc- 
ceed in it were I to undertake it ; but would I 
not lose my soul in doing it ? Am I sufficiently 
proof against vanity, sensuality, the thousand 
occasions of sin which I should encounter ? 



326 Temptations. 

Who would sustain my inconstancy ? Who 
would strengthen me against deception ? 

Oh ! my God, a little less attractive labor, 
and more safety. 

A little less glory, and more occasions of 
merit. 

Fewer desires, and more attention to doing 
at the present moment Thy holy and ador- 
able will. 



CHAPTER XII. 

LAST DAYS OF THE NOVITIATE. 

The last days of the Novitiate are spent in 
retreat, and it is very sweet this blessed time of 
immediate preparation for that day so ardently 
desired when the novice pronounces her vows. 

" Hasten, hasten, lagging hours! fly with 
me to Jesus !" wrote a novice. 

"Then, Thou dost desire me, O Jesus! 
Thou dost permit me to attach myself to Thee! 
And not only dost Thou permit, but Thou 
hast extended Thy goodness so far as to ask 
me daily during the last year, Art thou willing ? 

"Oh yes, Jesus, I desire it ! 

"And the word ' eternal' thrills me with a 
happiness which the words of this world are 
powerless to give ; the vows which I am about 
to pronounce are eternal, 

" Eternal, the ties which are about to bind 
me to Jesus ! 



328 Last days of the Novitiate. 

"Eternal, the title of Spouse which Jesus is 
about to confer upon me, and which I give 
Him in return ! 

' • Eternal, the words ' I belong not to myself 
but to Jesus I ' " . . . 

We offer to the novice, as subjects for medi- 
tation during the last days of the Novitiate, re- 
flections which will make the life she is about 
to embrace known to her in all its different 
points of view. 

This life has its trials, and it has its consola- 
tions. 



GENERAL TRIALS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 

We have spoken in the first pages of this book 
of the mistaken ideas many young girls form 
of the religious life, and the too human joys 
to which they look forward in community life. 
A whole year of Novitiate, no doubt, has a 
little modified the ardor of a young imagi- 
nation, and of a heart which saw no diffi- 
culty whatever in obedience and devotedness ; 
perhaps the devil has even exaggerated the 



Last days of the Novitiate. 329 

difficulties of the future during those hours 
when a novice was feeling a painful trial to 
which her mistress subjected her, or during 
those more sorrowful times still, perhaps, when 
God permitted her to remain cold, insensible, 
and devoid of fervor. 

We think it is our duty to make known with 
the precision which such a subject demands, 
the truth concerning the general trials of the 
religious life, and to this end we borrow the 
words of Father Bourdaloue, always so exact 
in doctrine.* 

* ' When we speak of the religious state, it 
seems to me that we sometimes give very 
human ideas of it. I am loath to hear preach- 
ers representing the religious state as a sweet 
life free from all trials and exempt from all 
care. One would say on hearing them, that a 
religious has nothing to suffer, nothing to 
bear ; that he wants for nothing, that all his 
surroundings are sweet and pleasant, that every- 
thing succeeds according to his desires. For 



* In our Book for the Professed, we will treat in de- 
tail each one of the trials of the religious life. 



330 Last days of the Novitiate. 

one house which he has left, a hundred, and 
more, are open to him ; for one father and 
mother from whom he has separated, he has 
as many as there are superiors charged with his 
guidance. All this is beautiful ; but the worst 
of it is that it is scarcely evangelical. And why 
need one renounce the world if it contained 
the hundred fold promised by Christ, and which 
we expect in religion ? Besides, finding much 
to undeceive the hopes we had formed on em- 
bracing the religious state, it would certainly 
be very strange to seek in retirement from the 
world what we pretended to fly from by leaving 
it : that is, purely temporal advantages, and 
wholly natural enjoyments. 



"The great advantage of the religious pro- 
fession is Christian self-denial, it is mortifica- 
tion of the senses, it is the cross ; and this is 
how we should regard it. All that turns us 
from this view turns us from truth; consequently 
is but illusion. I wish, then, that nothing 
should be hidden from a young person who 
intends to enter a religious house, and who 



Last days of the Novitiate. 331 

feels herself called thither. I wish that nothing 
should be disguised from her by brilliant but 
false pictures ; that she should be allowed to 
see all the consequences of the choice she is 
making; that every thing should be proposed to 
her as it really is, and that she should be shown 
the thorns which strew the path she is entering. 
For what is the religious life if not the Gospel 
reduced to practice, and the most perfect prac- 
tice ? And what is the Gospel if not a law of 
self-denial, of death to self, of continual war 
againt self? 

" But such thoughts, you will tell me, may 
discourage and repel a soul ; and I reply, on 
the contrary, it is from these very thoughts that 
it can and should find motives calculated to 
determine and confirm its resolutions. And 
why? Because they teach it to esteem the 
religious life in the way in which it is precisely 
most worthy of sovereign esteem : that is, as a 
state of sanctification, as a state of perfection, 
as a state of salvation, as a state where the 
religious soul may daily amass new merits for 
eternity, and unceasingly accumulate crown 
upon crown. This should be the capital point 



332 Last days of the Novitiate. 

to which she should solely attach herself, 
and in which her happiness on earth should 
consist. Therefore, it is upon this alone that 
the preacher should insist, and in this alone 
should he make the excellent prerogatives of 
the religious life to consist. However it may 
be in regard to all the rest, and whatever colors 
we may employ to embellish and relieve it, the 
moment we wander from this important consid- 
eration of salvation, I do not hesitate to say 
particularly of the religious state and those 
who embrace it, what St. Paul said in general 
of Christianity and Christians who profess it : 
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we 
are, of all men, most miserable. 

"Behold what I would say without fear of 
being contradicted by any of those who have 
any knowledge of the religious life, or, partic- 
ularly, by those who have any experience of it 
But the moment they allege salvation to me 
as the object of the religious state, that they 
speak to me of religious vocation as a pledge 
of predestination and salvation, that they make 
it known to me as a predilection on the part 
of God for me, as a special Providence in 



Last days of the Novitiate. 333 

regard to my salvation, ah ! then I will exclaim 
again with St. Paul : In the midst of tribulations, 
in the rudest trials of my state, I am filled with 
comfort, I exceedingly abound with joy. 

" I will further add," like the Royal Prophet, 
I have chosen to be abject in the house of my 
God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sin- 
ners. Let me be humbled in this house of 
God, let me occupy the lowest place ; let me 
feel all the inconveniences of strict poverty, let 
me bear all the burden of rigid obedience ; let 
nature, with all its covetousness, be there 
combated, conquered, immolated; it suffices 
that it is a house of salvation to render it to me 
not only bearable, but agreeable, pleasant. I 
ask but this ; it is the end of all my aspirations. 
Treating the happiness of the religious state in 
this way is taking all that is most real and solid 
in the subject, and it is upon the real and solid 
parts of every subject that a preacher should 
always dwell ; otherwise, he will make fine 
speeches which will sound in the air but will 
not convince minds or touch hearts." 



334 Last days of the Novitiate. 

(< And do not reply that after all, the Gospel, 
and all the fathers of the Church, supported by 
the words of Christ, promise religious not only 
a hundred fold in the life to come, which is 
eternal happiness, but even in this present life 
a hundred fold, which cannot but be the repose 
they enjoy and all the sweetnesses which ac- 
company it. It is true that Our Saviour has 
spoken of this double hundred fold : one in the 
life to come, the other in the present ; in the 
most formal terms has He declared : There is 
no man who hath left house \ or brethren, or sisters, 
or father or mother, or children, or lands for my 
sake, who shall not receive an hundred times as 
much now in this time, and in the world to come 
life everlasting. It is no less true that the hun- 
dred fold in this life cannot but be for the 
religious soul the enjoyment of peace which 
its state affords, and which is a hundred times 
more valuable than all the inheritance and 
lands which it has renounced : for it is thus 
that commentators verify this beautiful passage 
in St. Mark, and that they understand the pro- 
mise of the Son of God. But what is this 
peace? Behold the essential article, and 



Last days of the Novitiate. 335 

concerning which young people may be in 
error ; and it is well to undeceive them on this 
point, instead of maintaining them in their 
delusion by flattering discourses and vain ex- 
aggerations. 

"When Jesus Christ gave peace to His disci- 
ples, He warned them that it was not the peace 
such as the world conceives and desires. * My 
peace I give unto you ', said the divine Master, 
'not as the world giveth do I give unto you.' 
That peace of the world, that false condemned 
peace, is an idle effeminate peace formed on 
the comforts and conveniences of life, particu- 
larly upon all that which pleases nature and 
which satisfies self-love ; but the peace of the 
religious soul is founded on completely con- 
trary principles : on hatred of self, on perpetual 
sacrifice of one's sensual appetites, one's incli- 
nations, one's passions, one's desires. So that 
a religious can be contented in his retreat only 
in proportion as he knows how to humble 
himself, to crucify himself, to conquer himself, 
to render himself obedient, poor, patient, assid- 
uous in work, faithful to his duties : dispensing 



336 Last days of the Novitiate. 

himself from nothing, considering himself in 
nothing, seeking to spare himself in nothing. 
This must cost him much ; but, by a sort of 
miracle, the less he considers himself, the less 
he spares himself, the more does he feel the 
abundance of peace in his heart." 



"And do we not see also that it is precisely 
in the most regular and austere communities 
that more content is manifested, and that 
the yoke of Jesus Christ is found more sweet 
and His burden more light ? Every thing con- 
tributes to this contentment and this tranquil- 
lity of a truly religious soul: its indifference in re- 
gard to all human things, and its freedom from 
the interests which give worldlings so much 
anxiety ; its entire abandonment into the hands 
of its superiors to allow itself to be guided by 
their views ; the calm of its conscience, the hope 
of that beatitude which is the sole object of its 
aspirations, and toward which it daily labors 
by new progress ; and particularly the interior 
unction of the grace with which it is filled. 



Last days of the Novitiate. 337 

For God, faithful to His word, has a thousand 
ways of communicating Himself to this soul 
to fill it with His delights. 



"Judging by the exterior, we see nothing in 
all this plan of its life but what is hard and 
repellent: cloister, solitude, silence, continual 
dependence, absolute submission, restraining 
rule, troublesome observances, laborious func- 
tions, humiliating exercises, abstinence, fasts, 
macerations of the flesh. But under this 
exterior, capable of alarming souls which have 
never penetrated further, or have learned by no 
trial to recognize the mysteries of God, how 
much consolation there is hidden, according to 
the testimony of the Prophet, and reserved to 
those who fear the Lord? And how much 
more still to those who love Him and serve 
Him in spirit and in truth ? 

"Hence, by a miracle — which the worldly 
and carnal man does not and never will under- 
stand, but which is manifested to the religious 
and spiritual man by experience and the most 
sensible relish — hence it happens, I say, that 



338 Last days of the Novitiate. 

while people of the world with all their wealth, 
with all their honors, with all their pleasures, 
are nearly always discontented and incessantly 
complaining of their lot, the religious in his 
poverty, in his obscurity, subject to the most 
rigid obedience and the most mortifying prac- 
tices, does not cease to bless his condition and 
peaceably runs his career. The peace he pos- 
sesses is the peace of God ; and the apostle 
who had experienced it himself, assures us that 
the peace of God surpasseth all understanding. 
Now behold once more how I would represent 
to religious persons the happiness of their state. 
Behold the points upon which I wish to insist 
and which will serve to excite their zeal, their 
watchfulness, their fervor, by convincing them 
that their happiness consists in these things, 
and that in this way also their happiness will 
be full and constant. " 



II. 



CONSOLATIONS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 

We will be more at ease in speaking of the 
consolations of the religious life. 



Last days of the Novitiate. 339 

We might extract what we wish to say from 
some pages written by religious speaking of 
their happiness ; but perhaps these sentiments 
which now may thrill you and move you to 
tears will no longer find an echo in your soul 
when sensible grace has disappeared, and you 
may accuse them of being the result of an 
excited imagination. Therefore we will let the 
saints speak ; their words are more calm and 
always offer a safer refuge in the different sit- 
uations of the soul. 

No one paints better than St. Bernard the 
consolations of the religious state. This Doc- 
tor, so devoted to the Blessed Virgin, expresses 
himself thus : 

In the religious state the soul 

Lives more purely, 

Falls more rarely, 

Rises again more quickly, 

Proceeds more cautiously, 

Is filled with more graces, 

Enjoys more peace, 

Dies with more confidence, 

Shortens its purgatory, 

Gains a more beautiful crown. 



34° Last days of the Novitiate. 

Let us examine the consoling thoughts, one 
by one, and try to discover the riches contained 
in each. 

The religious lives with more purity and merit. 

Because all that she does, is done in the 
presence of God, in union with God, and to 
be offered to God. 

The servant of God, it is He whom she 
obeys. 

Bound to God by the vows of chastity, pov- 
erty, and obedience, it is without power to sep- 
arate herself from God that she labors, that she 
prays, that she takes her recreation, that she 
takes her repose. 

There is not one moment or one act of her 
life which is not commanded by God, and 
which she is not obliged to offer Him. She 
comprehends this, and the thought of it sustains 
her in labor and trials, obliges her to act with 
a purity of intention and a pure love which 
give to all her actions incalculable merit. 

Add to this merit, that which she acquires 
in virtue of her vows, and see what riches she 
amasses and what glory she renders to God ! 



Last days of the Novitiate. 341 

"How beautiful and meritorious are the least 
actions of a religious," exclaims a pious author. 
" The diadem of a princess does not equal in 
value the simple broom of a religious, when 
the rule places this humble implement in her 
hand ! " 



The religious soul falls more rarely. 

Because the walls which separate her from 
the world, — the rule which embraces every 
moment of the day and night, — the eyes of 
her superiors which lovingly follow her, — the 
thought of God which she does not easily 
lose, — the almost continual occupations which 
absorb her every hour. . . forcibly keep her 
from occasions of sin. 

Happy necessity which obliges one to live 
faithfully and modestly ! 

Happy constraint which keeps the members 
always subject to labor, the mind always ab- 
sorbed, the will always excited to turn to God! 

"O blessed walls!" cries St. Magdalen of 
Pazzi, ' ' from how many dangers do you pre- 
serve me ! " 



342 Last days of the Novitiate. 

The religious rises again more quickly. 

Because she finds herself surrounded by the 
most affectionate, most powerful, most effica- 
cious aids. Prayer, confession, counsels, pious 
readings, good examples, holy inspirations, 
remorse of conscience, continually surround 
her, at every hour, to urge her, to exhort 
her, to help her, to console her, to raise her 
up, to strengthen her, to pardon her. 

A religious must be very wicked to remain 
one day separated from God. Every moment 
she can rise again at least by prayer and an act 
of charity or obedience which prepare her for a 
good confession. 

Every hour, every day at least, she can have 
recourse to her superior for counsel, advice and 
encouragement. Then does she not continu- 
ally enjoy the graces drawn down upon the com- 
munity by the holy souls which compose it ? 

" When a religious falls," says a priest, "God 
hastens to him, extending him His hand to 
help him rise again. " 



Last days of the Novitiate. 343 

The religious proceeds more cautiously. 

Because she better understands her duties ; 
she feels her own weakness more ; she appre- 
ciates better the beauty of her innocence ; she 
comprehends all the gravity of her vows ; she 
feels, particularly, how she would grieve Jesus 
by the least voluntary fault. Therefore, she is 
carefully watchful, but without inconvenience, 
constraint or scruples, over her glances, her 
imagination, her words. Therefore, she fre- 
quently recommends herself to her angel guar- 
dian in whose presence she is happy to live. 
Therefore she is assiduous, each morning, in 
making her examen of anticipation, which causes 
her to avoid the occasions of sin and renders 
her more vigilant. 

The religious receives more graces. 

Because she lives, almost necessarily, more 
united to God ; God is the focus whence innu- 
merable graces are continually proceeding. 
All creatures, doubtless, have a share in these 
graces, but do not those who dwell near this 
focus receive a more abundant share ? 



344 Last days of the Novitiate. 

And the religious dwells in a house which 
belongs to God : she lives, she rests under the 
same roof with Jesus ; she draws near to Him 
in almost daily communion ; several times a 
day, she goes before the tabernacle where Jesus 
dwells ; several times in prayer, she invokes 
Him, adores Him, gives Him thanks, asks for 
graces ; even her work does not separate her 
from God since it is done by the order of God, 
in the presence of God. How could she fail 
to be filled with sanctifying graces ? 

The religious enjoys more peace. 

What then may trouble a religious ? Is she 
not with God, and above all is not God with 
her? Sickness may take away the health of 
her body, — -calumny may destroy the esteem 
she enjoys, — infirmities may render her mate- 
rially useless, -the devil may fill her imagination 
with terrifying phantoms, fears and apprehen- 
sions, — her superiors and her companions, by 
the permission of God, may regard her hence- 
forward as a burden.. . . if she be faithful to 



Last days of the Novitiate. 345 

fulfill her duties, according to her strength ; if 
her soul and her will be for God, even though 
it may seem to her that her heart is no longer 
His, she can always say to herself : 1 belong to 
God, and God will never abandon me I 

And with this thought is there not always 
peace in the depth of the soul ? 



The religious dies with more confidence. 

A holy death ! — this, after all, is the important 
point. . . Over the entrance of all religious 
houses may be inscribed these words which 
we read over the entrance to the monastery of 
La Trappe : If it is sometimes hard to live here, 
it is very sweet to die / 

Yes, it is very sweet to die in a religious 
house, for there we have lived more fervently 
than in the world ; we have denied ourselves 
more constantly, we have suffered more pa- 
tiently, we have labored more assiduously, we 
have above all confessed and communicated 
more piously. 

"Why," said a religious in her agony, with 
a smile upon her lips, "why should I not die 



346 Last days of the Novitiate. 

happy? God has promised heaven to him 
who leaves all for Him ; now I have left all for 
His love, and God is going to accomplish His 
promise." 

It is also a religious who has said, that every 
religious who has been faithful and devoted, 
can say at the hour of death : / did not think it 
was so sweet to die ! 

The religious shortens her purgatory. 

For, according to theologians, the religious, 
in virtue of her profession, obtains the remission 
of the temporal punishment of all the sins she 
committed in the world ; so that on that day 
if she be well disposed, — and on that day 
what religious is not perfectly disposed ? — she 
receives a grace of pardon which would send 
her to heaven if she were to die. 

Because, finally, the venial sins committed 
after profession are easily expiated by prayer, 
mortification, communion, the labors of each 
day, and by the numerous indulgences attach- 
ed to nearly all the exercises of the community ; 
and, finally, after the death of each religious, 



Last days of the Novitiate. 347 

a great number of prayers are said by the 
sisters, and a great number of masses offered, 
for the soul of the deceased member. 

The religious gains a more beautiful crown. 

Because the splendor of heaven's crown is 
in proportion to the soul's love for God and 
the number of her sacrifices for Him. 

Now who has loved God more than a relig- 
ious ? For Him she has given up all she loved: 
her father, her mother, her brothers, her sis- 
ters, — all that she had to expect of human 
joys, material welfare, comforts, glory ! She 
has given her body and her heart to Him by 
the vow of chastity ; her temporal goods, her 
time, her industry, by the vow of poverty ; her 
whole being by the vow of obedience. 

"Ah! if worldlings," says St. Liguori, 
" were to see the reward reserved for religious, 
they would abandon their houses, they would 
descend even from a throne and, like them* 
shut themselves within the walls of a convent 
and consecrate themselves to God 1 



348 Last days of the Novitiate. 

After these reflections which we counsel you 
to re-read and meditate upon, kneel and re- 
peat the following prayer : 

O Jesus ! my Redeemer and my God ! 
Whilst Thou hast left so many innocent per- 
sons in the world, how is it that Thou art will- 
ing to grant me, a poor sinner, the favor of 
becoming Thy spouse, and hast opened to me 
the doors of this Thy blessed house ? 

O my God, since Thou dost design to be- 
stow on me so great a favor, grant that I may 
know how to appreciate it : that I may be 
grateful, and that I may respond by my love to 
that which Thou dost manifest for me. 

Thou hast preferred me to so many others, 
is it not just that I should prefer Thee to all 
the world ? Thou wiliest me to share in Thy 
most intimate graces by admitting me into 
Thy family ; is it not just that I should give 
Thee all that I am and all that I have ? 

Yes, Jesus, I give Thee all power over me : 
take my senses, my members, my heart, my 
will, and let me no longer be mistress of any- 
thing. Yes, Jesus, in that blessed hour when 
I shall be permitted to pronounce my vows, I 



Last days of the Novitiate. 349 

wish to have no other intention but Thine ; 
no other desire but Thine ; no other will but 
Thy holy and ever adorable will ! 

And if the emotion of my heart leave me 
not sufficiently calm to clearly pronounce the 
formula of these vows which are the object of 
all my desires, I protest now against anything 
which could lessen the meaning of the words 
I will utter. 

Mary ! O my Mother ! it is thou who 
hast brought me here ; thou who hast helped 
me to make the sacrifices which I long believed 
to be beyond my strength ; O I thank thee, 
Mary ! 

1 will soon be the spouse of Jesus ; then still 
more than now wilt thou be my Mother. O 
Mary, Mary, guard me, protect me, defend me, 
love me ! Amen. 

As a summary of this little book, read slowly 

THE SYMBOL OF A RELIGIOUS. 

I believe that a vocation for the religious life is 
one of the greatest graces God can give a soul. 






350 Last days of the Novitiate. 

I believe that salvation, in the religious life, 
for the religious who is submissive to her 
superiors, faithful to her rule, devoted to her 
employment, is easier and more certain than in 
the world ; but more difficult for the religious 
who lives in laxity, in murmurs, and habitual 
discontent. 

* 

I believe that under the crosses of the relig- 
ious life, when borne with calm, patience and 
resignation, are hidden consolations all divine, 
which render them light, which even make us 
love them, and, particularly, render them glo- 
rious ; but that these same crosses, when borne 
with impatience and interior revolt, are accom- 
panied with grievous bitternesses which render 
them overwhelming and, above all, unmeri- 
torious. 

I believe that for the true religious, the house 
which shelters her is a foretaste of paradise ; there 
she finds the certain accomplishment of the 
will of God, the company of Jesus, the inef- 
fable happiness of almost daily communion, 



Last days of the Novitiate. 351 

and that other happiness which she does not 
have in heaven: of proving her love for God by 
suffering, — she enjoys a well-being and peace 
which human language cannot express ; but 
that for the bad religious, this house is a fore- 
taste of helL . . which, however, she can change 
into paradise by her tears and a sincere repen- 
tance. 

I believe that retigious obedience is true liberty, 
or veritable bondage, according as we observe 
it to please God, or only through human mo- 
tives or necessity. 

I believe that the salvation of a tepid, lax, 
imperfect religious is in great danger, and 
that a submissive, devoted, watchful religious 
each day makes more and more sure the great 
affair of her eternity. 



I believe that weariness in a religious house 
comes nearly always from unfaithfulness to lit- 
tle practices, to little observances, and from the 
facility with which we yield to slight murmurs 



352 Last days of the Novitiate. 

and to little criticisms ; and that the sover- 
eign remedy for all tediousness, all trials and 
nearly all temptations, is strict submission, 
fraternal charity, and respect for authority. 



I believe that the religious is bound to 
greater sanctity than the simple faithful ; and 
that the sin she commits offends God more 
than the same sin committed by an ordinary 

soul. 

I believe that fidelity to the little points of 
the religious life is a source of great sanctity; 
and that the soul which carefully watches to 
fail in nothing, daily acquires an almost infinite 
sum of merits. 

I believe that a faithfut religious will be 
eternally higher in the happiness and glory of 
heaven than all the other elect ; but that a lost 
religious will also be eternally more unhappy 
than all the other reprobates. 



APPENDIX. 

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE SECULAR STATE, AND 

THE RELIGIOUS STATE, TO HELP THE 

SOUL IN ITS CHOICE. 

(Extract from Mgr. Luquet's work, Vocation.) 

It is kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament that 
one should read these pages and ask oneself, after the 
advice of St. Ignatius : 

1st. If a person whom I had never seen, but in 
whose perfection I was interested, were in my position 
and asked my advice, what would I counsel him for 
the greater glory of God and the greater perfection of 
his soul ? 

2d. At the hour of death how would I wish to have 
conducted myself in this deliberation ? 

3d. What choice shall I wish I had made when I am 
called before the tribunal of God? 

I. 

REASONS IN FAVOR OF THE SECULAR STATE. 

I. We can be saved in the world, and many have led 
holy lives there. In the ancient law there was only 
the state of matrimony ; and in this state how many 
patriarchs and prophets have attained great sanctity ? 

2d. God does not exact from a layman the perfec- 



354 Appendix. 

tion of a religious ; the latter is obliged to lead a holier 
life by reason of the sublimity of his state. 

3d. We find in the world powerful means of salva- 
tion : confession, communion, pious reading, every fa- 
cility for applying ourselves to meditation, prayers, and 
for hearing the word of God. . . All this is possible, 
and if we know how to profit by it we shall certainly 
go to heaven. 

4th. In the world there are occasions of doing good 
which are not found in the religious state } for exam- 
ple, giving alms, visiting the poor, edifying the parish. 
The education of children, which has raised marriage 
to the dignity of a sacrament, is very meritorious be- 
fore God. A mother of a family who is an example 
of virtue to her household, who inspires in them all 
a holy emulation to imitate the virtues which they see 
her practise will be rewarded with treasures of grace 
and glory. How beautiful it is to see order, regular- 
ity and sanctity reign in a family ! 

5. All those who embrace the religious state do not 
lead a holy life ; the same misfortune might overtake 
you if you entered this state without a vocation ; we 
cannot rid ourselves of our bodies on entering relig- 
ion, and the devil does not lose the power of tempting 
us through them. 

6th. It is hard to be unceasingly dependent on the 
will of another, particularly if we are so unfortunate 
as to have exacting superiors. 

7th. The burdens of life are easier to bear when 
there are two to share them. 



Appendix. 355 

8th. The hope of an honorable office, honest gains, 
justly acquired riches, honors, are things that can be 
licitly enjoyed in the world. 

9th. Consider your abilities; examine your inclina- 
tions, your talents, your disposition, the faults to 
which you are subject, and the ascendency they have 
over you. Could you be useful in the religious life ? 

REASONS AGAINST THE SECULAR STATE. 

1st. One encounters therein numerous and real 
perils to salvation. So much bad example, so many 
occasions of sin, so many means of seduction are 
capable of perverting and insensibly leading to ruin 
even those who have resolved to lead a Christian life. 

2d. What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole 
worlds and suffer the loss of his own soul? Everything 
earthly is transitory ; heaven and hell are eternal. 

3d. What are the pleasures of the senses? Transi- 
tory, (man shares them a moment with the brute,) mo- 
mentary pleasures, and eternal sufferings, for it is very 
difficult, not to say impossible, to enjoy the delights of 
earth and the delights of heaven. 

4th. One day what will all your daintiness and abun- 
dant cheer avail you ? The wicked rich man had always 
a luxurious table, and he was buried in hell ; while 
poor Lazarus was carried up to heaven. Why so care- 
fully nourish a body, which, soon changed into corrup- 
tion, will become an infectious corpse, and the food of 
worms ? 



356 Appendix. 

5U1. What are even the most brilliant honors ? 
The breath of a moment. Were I to enjoy them a 
hundred years, what are a hundred years compared 
to eternity ? . 

6th. Crosses and adversities are innumerable in theg 
world; if you are observing you will find that seculars 
have more to suffer than religious. The latter suffer 
for heaven; the former for vanity and, frequently, for 
hell. 

7th. How would it be if you were thrown with a 
person with whom you could not agree ? Her pres- 
ence would be a continual torment in your house ; her 
death or yours alone could deliver you from it. 

8th. How would it be if you had disobedient, vicious 
children who were a disgrace to their mother ? What 
a source of affliction it would be ! What a severe ac- 
count you would have to render to the Sovereign 
Master if they were badly brought up through your 
fault! 

9th. The daily, constantly-recurring household cares 
are an inexhaustible source of trouble and anxiety. 
This uninterrupted attention to things of this earth is 
so absorbing that it hardly leaves one time to think 
of God and the soul's salvation. 

ioth. What labor is expended in amassing riches, 
what fear and anxiety in preserving them ! If God 
should permit your efforts to be fruitless, how would 
you bear poverty? It must be acknowledged that 
misery has occasioned many base actions and even 
many crimes. 



Appendix. 357 

Iith. Death is a cruel sacrifice to people of the 
world ; it is hard for them to separate from relatives, 
to abandon the riches to which they were attached. 

I2th. It is difficult to live in the midst of flames 
without being burned ; to touch pitch without being 
defiled; to enjoy the goods of this world without hav- 
ing the heart attached to them. And yet, according 
to St. Paul, the Christian must use the things of this 
world as if he possessed them not.* Finally, it is easy 
to amass riches by unjust means, particularly when 
necessity is urgent. 

ijth. At the same time these considerations should 
not drive you from the secular state if God calls you 
to it : You can do all things in Him who strengthened 
you.\ So many persons have had the grace of sanctifi- 
cation in this state, why should not you ? Examine 
your strength, your means of resisting evil, and your 
inclinations. 

II. 

REASONS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS STATE. 

1st It is very difficult to constantly lead a perfect 
life ; that is, one completely opposed to the senses and 
to the love we bear ourselves. Many times there have 
been men who in religion sought comforts and sat- 
isfaction of the senses, and who thus lost all inclination 
for the exercises of the interior life. 

* 1 Cor. vii, xxxi. 
t Phillip, iv, xiii. 



358 Appendix. 

2d. The practice of the three vows is an equally seri- 
ous thing. It is hard to renounce one's own will forever. 
It costs many combats to preserve the vow of chastity 
intact ; the violation of it is a sacrilege. Poverty strips 
a man of all his possessions during his whole life. 

3d. To renounce, forever, all we possess or may 
ever possess : all one's comforts in lodging, clothing, 
food ; to renounce one's friends, relatives, legitimate 
pleasures, honors, dignities, rank, is something easier 
imagined than practised. 

4th. Always frugal fare, rigorous penance, cloister, 
solitude, daily repetitions of the same actions and 
similar mortifications, — behold what he who is delib- 
erating should weigh well ; again I say it is easier 
imagined than practised. 

5th. It is rash to enter such a difficult state without 
a clear vocation from God; religious who have entered 
it without being called have afterwards abandoned 
it, or they have lived in such tepidity that it would 
have been much better for them had they never em- 
braced it. It might happen that one would regret 
having entered religion at a time when it would be 
impossible to draw back. 

6th. There are difficulties and perils in this state, 
which you can not overcome if your vocation is not 
from God, and if you do not merit His grace by faith- 
fully observing the rule. 

7th. God does not wish all to be religious; therefore 
He does not give to all the talents and strength neces- 
sary for this state. 



Appendix. 359 

REASONS IN FAVOR OF THE RELIGIOUS STATE. 

1st. In perfection and excellence the religious state 
surpasses all others, either because it removes the ob- 
stacles to salvation, or because it wholly consecrates 
one to God in the most perfect manner. 

2d. God has most solemnly promised heaven to 
religious: Amen, I say to you every one that hath left 
house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or 
wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall 
receive an hundred fold and shall possess life everlast- 
ing, * Entering religion is a mark of predestination. 

3d. In religion one escapes the dangers to salvation, 
the occasions of sin, the evil attractions of the world. 
The vices of the flesh are conquered by chastity and 
mortification ; ambition is chained by obedience, and 
a love of riches by poverty. There are no perverse 
examples to lead one astray, no alluring occasions of 
sin. 

4th. Religion further affords abundant and most 
efficacious means of salvation, which force a man, so 
to speak, to be virtuous. These are, the rules, the vig- 
ilance of the superiors, the frequentation of the sacra- 
ments, public and private exhortations, the example 
of the holy lives, the daily pious reading, mortification, 
meditation on the truths of religion, pious confer- 
ences, the absence of worldly interests, the continual 
use of the things of God, the correction of faults. 

* Matt, xix, 28, 29. 



360 Appendix. 

5th. According to St. Thomas and other saints, 
entering religion produces the entire remission of 
past sin. 

6th. Religious have no need to concern themselves 
about their food, clothing, dwelling and other things. 
Free from earthly cares, they can more easily apply 
themselves to meditation, and devote themselves with 
their whole heart to the service and love of God, and 
secure their salvation. 

7th. The religious, docile to the direction of her 
superiors, is always sure of doing the will of God. 
Therefore she can never make a mistake provided she 
act in accordance with the will of her superiors, of 
whom Jesus Christ has said : He that heareth you 
heareth me* 

8th. The religious life is no other than a continual 
practice of virtues, which, according to St. Thomas, 
are much more meritorious from being practised 
through obedience or vow. 

9th. The mutual participation in the good works 
performed by the religious of the same order, scattered 
throughout the world, procures each one as much 
merit as if she herself were the author of these works. 

ioth. What merits, what treasures of glory a re- 
ligious amasses who assists the dying, who teaches 
catechism, who cares for the sick, who is a mother to 
the orphan, who immolates herself for the glory of 
God! 

* Luke x, 16. 



Appendix. 361 



Ilth. Death is sweet and easy to the religious either 
because she has long since bidden adieu to the things 
of this world, or because she experiences great joy at 
the memory of a life consecrated to serving her God. 
Thus the thought of the supreme Judge, so terrifying 
to people in the world, leaves her filled with confi- 
dence. 

12th. After the death of a religious, her sisters offer 
a great many communions for her, and have a great 
many masses said. 

13th. Even did not religion present all these advan- 
tages, there would still be a sufficient number ; for 
God is better loved there, — He is more faithfully 
served by the perfect imitation of Jesus Christ; is not 
this a powerful reason for determining one to embrace 
so holy a state ? 

14th. Consider the singular advantages of the re- 
ligious life alleged by St. Bernard, which we devel- 
oped on page 338 ; "In religion" says St. Bernard, ' ' the 
soul lives with greater purity of conscience, because 
there it observes chastity, obedience, and poverty ; it 
falls more rarely, for it does not find occasions of evil, 
dangerous conversations, or the perils of the world. 
It rises more promptly from a fall, for it has unceasing- 
ly before it the teachings of the Gospel, the example 
of the saints, and the fervor of others. It proceeds 
more cautiously at the sight of its past sins, its present 
imperfections and the recompense which is prepared 
for it. It rests with more security, for it tastes the 



362 



Appendix* 



sweetness of the gifts of the Holy Ghost and interior 
consolations. It more frequently receives the celes- 
tial dew, on account of the continual increase of its 
good dispositions, of divine grace, and its more intim- 
ate familiarity with God. It is purified more prompt- 
ly, owing to the abundant succors which are offered 
it — good inspirations, frequent exhortations, etc. It 
dies with more confidence, on account of the indul- 
gences granted to religious for meritorious works and 
the assistance of its brothers. Its reward is greater, 
owing to its more perfect imitation of Jesus, the la- 
bors of the religious life, and the victory gained over 
the world, the flesh and the devil." 



THE WORLD AND THE CONVENT. 



In the world, one most 
frequently lives in ignor- 
ance of the practical truths 
of Christianity and the 
grave duties of his state. 

In the world, temporal 
prosperity is the object of 
one's desires ; the end of 
one's labor to make a for- 
tune, to have an advan- 
tageous establishment. 

In the world, little time 
is given to the grand and 
important affair of salva- 
tion. 

In the world one ap- 
plies himself to prayer in 
a very superficial manner ; 



In the convent, one con- 
tinually seeks to instruct 
herself in the 4a w of God 
and the obligations of the 
rule, and applies herself 
to accomplish all that is 
prescribed. 

In the convent, the sole 
object of one's desires is 
to be detached from all 
things, and to labor for 
heaven. 

In the con vent, salvation 
is the end of all one's 
thoughts, labors, and fa- 
tigues. 

In the convent, one 
prays several times a day; 



Appendix. 



363 



rarely during the day does 
the thought of God make 
any impression on his 
heart. 

In the world, a young 
girl seeks to attract ad- 
miration, to shine by the 
brilliancy of her toilet, her 
ornaments, and adorn- 
ments and all the inven- 
tions of vanity. 

In the world, a young 
girl endeavors to preserve 
her youth, her freshness, 
her exterior graces, to 
attract the regard, admira- 
tion, esteem and friend- 
ship of creatures. 

In the world, a young 
girl occupies herself as 
much as she can with 
frivolous reading which 
spoils her mind, poisons 
her heart, causes her at 
least to lose her time. 

In the world, a young 
girl amuses herself in so- 
ciety, in profane assem- 
blies where purity is fre- 
quently tarnished, where 
charity is nearly always 
wounded. 

In the world, a young 
girl seeks to follow her 
own will, to satisfy her 
self-love, to gratify her 
sensibility, — to avoid all 
that inconveniences her. 



she meditates, she visits 
Jesus, she is almost un- 
ceasingly reminded of the 
presence of God. 

In the convent, the nov- 
ice seeks only to humble 
herself, to be forgotten, 
to hide herself under a 
simple, modest, even 
coarse dress. 

In the convent, the nov- 
ice sets no value on exter- 
ior advantages, she seeks 
only to please God, know- 
ing well that what He 
loves is the beauty of the 
soul. 

In the convent, the nov- 
ice occupies herself with 
serious reading which 
nourishes her piety, en- 
lightens her mind, and 
purifies her heart. 

In the convent, the nov- 
ice makes silence a strict 
duty which she never in- 
terrupts but at the hours 
prescribed by the rule, 
and she is watchful to let 
no uncharitable word es- 
cape her. 

In the convent, the nov- 
ice seeks to obey in all 
things to deny herself; 
to destroy her self-love, 
to uproot her faults. 

In the convent, the nov- 
ice acts with upright 



364 



Appendix. 



In the world, a young 
girl uses a thousand arti- 
fices, a thousand wiles, 
licit or illicit, to make 
herself sought and ad- 
mired. 

In the world, a young 
girl loses a great portion 
of her time in a thousand 
frivolities of dress, of dis- 
sipation; in almost ridic- 
ulous care of her health 
and appearance. 

In the world, a young 
girl is distressed at a hu- 
miliation, a failure; she 
abandons herself to ennui, 
vexation, and ill-humor, 
when events happen con- 
trary to her wishes. 

In the world, a young 
girl makes little serious 
preparation for the recep- 
tion of the sacraments, 
thinks little of correcting 
her faults, and on the day 
she receives Holy Com- 
munion satisfies herself 
with a few prayers, and, 
at most, with a little re- 
straint. 

In the world, a young 
girl yields to the incon- 
stancy of her disposition : 
she takes a multitude 
of resolutions which she 
never executes ; she is 
faithful scarcely a week, 



frankness and simplicity, 
and seeks only to merit 
the regard and love of 
God. 

In the convent, the nov- 
ice rigidly devotes her 
time to useful labors, al- 
lowing herself no amuse- 
ment, no leisure, outside 
of the hours prescribed 
for relaxation. 

In the convent, the nov- 
ice does not allow herself 
to be troubled at a reproof 
or humiliation; and when 
she does not succeed, she 
regards her failure as the 
will of God and endeavors 
to do better another time. 

In the convent, a nov- 
ice applies herself partic- 
ularly to receiving the 
sacraments with a spirit 
of faith: each confessior 
is for her an occasion o 
renewing all her obliga 
tions; each communior 
renders her stronger 
more vigilant, more vir 
tuous. 

In the convent, the nov 
ice submits to a rula 
which does not leave he 
mistress of her time no 
permit her to choose he 
work ; her labor is pel 
formed in the presence 
superiors who oblige he 



Appendix. 



365 



when she wearies and be- 
comes careless again ; she 
begins a thousand things 
which she never finishes, 
for she is her own mis- 
tress, and has not the 
strength to overcome the 
weariness which necessa- 
rily arises from a continu- 
ance of the same labor. 

Read slowly the above pages, and consider which it 
is — the convent or the world — which must afford most 
peace to your soul, and which should most surely lead 
you to heaven. 



to continue what she has 
begun; she is sustained, 
incited, encouraged, by 
the thought that she is 
doing the will of God, 
that God counts her fa- 
tigues to reward her still 
more for the weariness 
she will have overcome. 



III. 



A DEPARTURE FOR THE CLOISTER. 



One day, the curate of St. Maurice d' Angers saw a 
peasant from GenGt, his former parish, entering his 
house. He was a strong vigorous man, not yet thirty, 
with a countenance expressive of goodness, frankness 
and piety. 

" Is it you, Pierre V exclaimed M. le Cure\ delighted 
to see him. " How are they at Gen&t? Are the harvests 
promising? Is your family well ? " 

" Ah! M.LeCureV' said the peasant, with a little 
embarrassment, " I came because I am undertaking a 
great enterprise : I am going away to La Trappe, 
1 which is near Le Mans, on the road to Paris." 

" You are going to La Trappe ? " 



366 Appendix. 

" Oh, yes j you told us so often that we could never 
do too much for the good God, that at last I decided 
to leave every thing for Him." 

" But you were very necessary to your Mother ; 
she is a poor widow, and yours is a very heavy farm 
to manage." 

" That is why I have not hurried M. le Cure\ It is 
more than ten years since the idea of becoming a monk 
has been knocking at my heart. I waited till my little 
brother, Jean, should have passed the conscription ; 
he drew a good number — he is free now, so I thought 
I could go." 

"And your good mother who loved you so much 
and whose support you have been, how did you tell 
her this ? ' ; 

*' Ah ! M. le Cure, my heart still bleeds. . . You see 
I thought I never could do it. She suspected I had 
some design I would not speak of. In the evening 
as we sat by the fire, she spinning and I thinking, 
frequently her wheel would stop, and I would find her 
eyes fixed upon me ; I would try to open my mouth, 
but it was impossible ; my knees knocked against each 
other, my lips trembled, my heart froze the rest of my 
body, my lips refused to form the words, when I 
thought of my mother. — ' Pierre, my son,' she said to 
me, * if every thing is not as you like it, tell me. Do 
you want to marry ? We are not rich but we have a 
good name ; your father lived and died like a saint, 
and every family in the country would think well of 
an alliance with ours/ " 



Appendix. 367 

"The more my mother pressed me, the more I 
feared to confess that I was thinking of something very 
different — of becoming a monk. 

" Finally, the other evening, my mother having 
assembled us all to open the month of the Blessed 
Virgin, she and I remained alone in prayer after the 
others had gone. 

" The idea came to me that this was the moment, 
and my thought escaped suddenly: 

"Mother, if you will permit it I am going to La 
Trappe ; I am going to pray for you and do penance. 
— O my God ! when you think such things as that 
have to be said. 

"My mother, for a moment, remained immovable 
before me without speaking, — almost without breath- 
ing; then, still on her knees, with her eyes raised to 
heaven, she said in a quiet tone: 

1 Pierre, the good God is thy first Father ; religion 
is thy first mother ; they are to be preferred before me. 
Go, since thou hearest their call in thy heart. If I stop- 
ped thee a moment when there was question of thy soul 
I would die of grief. Thou hast loved me well, and 
well assisted me ; I bless thee.' She turned towards 
the image of the Blessed Virgin and continued in 
prayer. 

" I could not utter a word, M. le Curej I rushed out 
in the air to be able to breathe more freely ; it was 
the hour when the cattle return home, and our cows 
came toward me and, looking at me, seemed to say 
with their great eyes: Master, why are you going away ? 



368 Appendix. 

" I fled into the fields without being able to escape 
from my pain. There was not a thing, even to the 
trees I planted and pruned, the earth I had sown, which 
did not, like my poor cattle, seek to keep me in my 
home. Holy Virgin ! what roots our hearts have here 
below! I threw myself on my knees — I prayed — I took 
my crucifix and I asked for assistance ; for my cour- 
age was going from me. Then, looking at our Lord, 
upon the cross, I was ashamed of my cowardice, and it 
was at an end. 

" I did not sleep at home, — I would not look again 
upon what had so shaken me, and, in the morning 
before daylight, I took my departure. I passed through 
our parish as they were saying the first Mass ; it re- 
stored the calm of my heart, and here I am to tell you 
good-by and to thank you very much for the good 
sentiments with which you inspired me in my youth." 
"That is right, my child, you are obeying God. 
But why have you preferred La Trappe of Mortagne, 
which is so far from your village when you had quite 
near you La Trappe of Bellefontaine ? " 

"I often thought of that, M. Le Curfe; it would 
have been more convenient as you say, but, you see 
I had an experience of what a coward affection makes 
me. If once I had assumed the woollen dress, and 
my people came weeping to see me, would I have 
kept to it ? I would have been in danger of flinging 
it aside or at least of carrying beneath it a broken heart, 
for a long time. Now when one gives himself to the 
service of God it is my opinion that he should set 



Appendix. 369 

about it joyfully and be contented in it. Is it not better 
to take the hardest at once in order that we may better 
persevere?" 

"Truly, my friend, it is to perseverance your efforts 
riust tend. You are young and strong, and in the 
austerities of La Trappe life may seem long to you." 

" Ah, M Le Cure, as to that it is sooner ended than 
we are accustomed to think ; and we are not long in 
coming to the end. Everything in this world tells us 
that life is short. 

"Some weeks since I was dragging a pond. It was 
large and deep, a terrible volume of water, — you know 
the pond of the Two Elms. Well, when we had re- 
moved the flood-gate and the current started, in no 
time the water had disappeared, and said I to myself: 
Behold how this life runs and flows into the eternity 
of God ; and as I stood motionless on the edge of the 
pond, I thought of Him the unmoved Spectator of life. 

"And then, M. le Cure, whether our course is rapid 
like the torrent, or slow like the rivulet, all the same 
we reach our last hour — you impressed this well upon 
us. And then what can comfort the soul but the con- 
sciousness of having done all it could for the good God ! 

"Behold what urges me to penance. Therefore, 
Father, give me your blessing ; the stream flows on, life 
is going, I hasten to bring something to the good God. 

"The curate blessed Pierre, saw him depart, then fell 
on his knees in prayer ; and when he had prayed he 
wrote the words of the peasant, to keep them in mem- 
ory and nourish his heart with the works of God in 
chosen souls." 



37° Appendix. 



IV. 



A FEW PAGES FROM THE LIFE OF MADAM LOUISE 

OF FRANCE, CARMELITE RELIGIOUS, AND 

DAUGHTER OF LOUIS XV. 

Motives which led Madam Louise to become a re- 
ligious. 

The precise motives which led Madam Louise to 
embrace the religious life are found in a letter which 
she wrote to a young person who became a Carmelite, 
and consulted her on her vocation. 

" I have never written letters of direction," she says, 
"and I would never take upon myself to decide any 
one's vocation ; but I will tell you the motives which 
led me to leave the world, however brilliant it could 
have been for me and though I was sheltered by 
my rank from certain dangers which others would en- 
counter. 

"These motives were: My sins ; what it cost Jesus 
Christ to save me; the necessity of penance in this life 
or the next, — penance, a thing so difficult to practise in 
a life of ease, particularly for one as fond of comfort as 
I was ; the parable of the camel, who can sooner pass 
through the eye of a needle than a rich man can enter 
heaven; finally, the desire of possessing God eternally 
and enjoying the crown which is prepared for us in 
heaven." 



Appendix. 371 

Pray Br which Madam Louise of France addressed to 
St. Theresa to obtain through her assistance grace to 
enter the Carmelite convent. 

The princess composed the following prayer which 
she daily addressed to St. Theresa. It is the voice of 
a loving daughter who in her pressing need familiarly 
pours out her heart to that mother whose affection for 
her and power with God she so well knows : 

" Behold me once more at thy feet, O holy mother, 
and always to obtain the grace which I have solicited so 
many years. My hopes are increased ; but, alas ! they 
are still but hopes. I am still in the world, still far 
from thy blessed asylums, and I do not yet even see 
any certain route which will bring me to them. 

" I persist, O my God, in submitting to Thy holy 
will. I ask but to know it ; and were it opposed to all 
my desires, Thou knowest I would at once submit. 
Yes, I would renounce my most cherished designs and 
settle in the state where Thy adorable Providence 
would retain me. But be Thou for ever praised, O my 
God! Thy mercy has not rejected the desires of my 
heart. Thou hast accepted my sacrifice ; and it only 
remains for me to await the moment marked by Thee. 
I await it, O my God, with equal submission an^l 
eagerness. O my good Mother! join thy entreaties 
to those of thy child whom thou canst not disown. 
Look upon me, behold the slavery in which I am, and 
the agitation in which I live : my prayers restrained, 
my meditations cut off, my devotions thwarted. 
Behold the temporal affairs which assail me; behold 



37 2 Appendix. 

how the world scatters at my feet its pomps, its plays, 
its pageants, its maxims, its delights, its vanities, its 
corruptions, all its temptations, without my being able 
to fly or turn from them. See the dangers I run, and 
the thorns which strew my path. Be moved at my 
faults and the little good I do. Behold my desolation, 
my sadness, my weariness. Have pity on me ; finally, 
obtain for me the holy liberty of the children of God. 
"Holy Mother, am I not sufficiently tried? Knowest 
thou not the desire in the depth of my heart ? After so 
many years of constancy, wilt thou still doubt my res- 
olution ? Have I wavered for one moment ? Hast thou 
not always seen me turn toward the Voice which called 
me : tending towards it with all my strength ; unceas- 
ingly sighing after the happiness of following it, and 
sometimes melting into tears at finding myself put 
back year after year ? Yes, it is with all the ardor and 
sincerity of my soul that I conjure God to break the 
ties which bind me ; that I solicit thee to help me to 
break them, and that I implore to render thee propitious 
to my vows the intercession of thy dearest daughters. 
Have I not sufficient knowledge of the world to detest 
it forever and never regret it ? I have long considered, 
one after the other, the pleasures of the state I wish to 
renounce, and Thou art my witness, O Jesus, that there 
is not one which I have hesitated to sacrifice to 
Thee. Vain, perfidious pleasures filled with bitter- 
ness ! Were they a thousand times more pure I 
would prefer the chalice of my Saviour. Tell me not, 
O my good Mother ! that I do not yet know thy 



Appendix. 373 

holy rule. Ah ! hast thou not seen me read it, 
meditate upon it, wear it about me and make it my 
delight ? No, I have disguised nothing to myself. 
Abasements, poverty, austerities of all sorts, privations 
of every kind, — solitude, abandonment contradictions, 
humiliations, contempt, ill-treatment, — I have studied it 
all in its worst light, and by the grace of God nothing 
has frightened me. I have compared the state of a 
princess with that of a Carmelite and I have always de- 
clared the latter to be of more value ; never will my 
heart retract this judgment. I have seen, O my Jesus ! 
and I have weighed the cross which I pray Thee to set 
on my shoulders. Ah ! why is it not as heavy as 
Thine ? 

" O my Mother ! what then wiliest thou of me and 
what must thou have more ? My days are fleeting, my 
years are speeding. Alas ! what will I have left to give 
my God ? O my Mother ! open then at last, open to 
me the doors of thy house ; show me the path thither ; 
prepare me the way, smooth all the obstacles for me ; 
I need all thy assistance to take the first step ; I need 
it to declare my desire to him whose consent I require. 
Cause a favorable occasion to arise ; prepare his heart ; 
dispose it to listen me, defend me against his tender- 
ness, defend me against my own. Give me the courage 
to speak to him, and put in my mouth persuasive words 
which will overcome all his repugnances. Place on my 
lips what I must tell him, the replies I must make him ; 
speak to him thyself for me, make my replies. Thou 
didst obtain so much grace to break the ties which kept 



374 Appendix. 

thee in the world, thou hast obtained so many similar 
graces for thy daughters, intercede then for me, also, my 
mother ; and before I leave here whisper to my heart 
that I may speak when I will, and that the heart of the 
king is ready to yield to my desires. . . But, holy 
mother, will the king learn my resolution, will he con- 
sent to it, will he see it executed without being moved 
to turn to God ? I a Carmelite, and the king wholly for 
God, — what happiness ! God can do it, — God will do it, 
if you ask Him, holy mother. Alas ! he would even do 
it at my prayer if my faith corresponded to my desires. 
Ah ! I believe. O my God, I believe ! . . O my 
mother, lay my faith at the feet of thy divine Spouse ; 
may it grow, may it increase in thy hands; may it 
equal thine ; may it merit like thine to work miracles. 
After that what could I desire, and will I not be very 
happy to die, — to die a Carmelite, leaving all my family 
here below in the path of heaven ? " 

The happiness of Madam Louise of France, 

A few days after her entrance the fervent Carmelite 
wrote to one of her friends : 

" Everything here breathes the gayety of heaven. I 
have just come from recreation where I thought I 
should die laughing, though I had received bad news 
which touched me very much ; see how powerful is the 
joy of a good conscience !" 

And a month afterwards she writes to the same 

person " So my bed moved you to compassion ? 

Nevertheless I am not to be pitied in it, — I find myself 



Appendix. 375 

very well off there; and no later than last night I slept 
eight hours in it. I assure you that is not so pitiable 
when we think of what Jesus has done for us. More- 
over it does not cost me anything. I am ashamed to 
say that while every body is edified by it I am as 
much at my ease on my straw mattress as if I were on 
a bed of feathers." 

Always equally contented under the habit of the 
Carmelite, the princess frequently spoke of her hap- 
piness — never of her sacrifices ; and if she compared her 
past life with that of Carmel it was only to prove that 
she had left little to find much. 

Here is the parallel she drew between these two 
states so different from each other: "Believe me," she 
was accustomed to say to her companions in that tone 
of candor which carries persuasion with it, " believe me, 
I am truly happier than I deserve to be ; and physically 
as well as morally I have gained infinitely by coming 
here. It is true that at Versailles I had a good bed, 
but in it I had but broken slumber. I had a well-served 
table, but frequently I could bring no appetite to it. 
Here, my bed is only a mattress stuffed with straw ; but 
on this I sleep wonderfully well. Our refectory offers me 
sufficiently frugal fare, but I enter it with an appetite 
which perfectly seasons every dish which is placed 
before me ; and to such a degree that I often feel a 
scruple at finding so much pleasure in eating our peas 
and carrots. I can say literally, and with all truth^ 
that a single day in the house of the Lord brings me 
more solid contentment than could a thousand spent in 



376 Appendix. 

the palace where I dwelt. We have our customs here, 
and the court also has its own, but they are much 
harder than ours ; and when one lives at the court he 
must, in spite of his repugnances, follow the exercises of 
the court. Here, for example, at five o'clock I go to 
meditation ; at Versailles, I had to go to the card-table. 
At nine o'clock in the evening the bell calls me to 
prayers ; at Versailles I was informed that it was the 
hour for the play. One is never at rest at court, 
though he unceasingly seeks to surround himself with 
the same circle of inutilities. What fine mornings I have 
wasted there! Part of the morning went in resting 
from the fatigues, frequently disagreeable fatigues, of 
the previous evening ; another portion in a tiresome 
toilet ; the rest in listening to importunate, wearisome 
people. Here, as I sleep at night, I am ready to get up 
in the morning. My whole toilet does not take two 
minutes, after which I occupy myself all day in a man- 
ner agreeable to my mind, for I know that it is profita- 
ble to my soul. Finally, all that surrounded me at 
court promised me pleasure, and no where did I find 
it; here, on the contrary, where all appears made to 
sadden nature I experience pare enjoyment; and 
during the year I have spent here I daily ask myself, 
Where are those austerities with which they sought to 
frighten me? But when it is evident that in every 
respect I have gained by changing the court for Carmel, 
judge what foundation they have for honoring me so 
much for the step I have taken." 



Appendix. 377 

" You would hardly believe " says the new Carmelite, 
"what joy a good conscience gives. The whole year 
that I have been here is but one feast-day. Yes, truly, 
I feel too happy in this house ; every thing about me is 
pleasant even to the walls which separate me from the 
world I" 

V. 

THE HAPPINESS WHICH THE PRINCE SCHOUVALOFF 
EXPERIENCED IN THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 

Better is one day in Thy courts, O Lord ! above 
thousands. I have chosen to be abject in the house 
of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of 
sinners. — (JPs. lxxxiii., II, 12.) 

Nearly sixteen years have passed since I left the 
Greek church, and nearly three years since I bid an 
eternal adieu to the world. My experience is comple- 
ted. The dreams of manhood, the illusions of youth 
have entirely disappeared. I am fifty-three : a period 
in life when we reason more ; when poetry gives place 
to logic ; when the mind is less rash, the body more 
indolent ; when, in fine, things appear in the reality of 
their nakedness, usually so hideous and so sad. Yes, 
my experience is completed, and for me the reality is 
beautiful. I, a traveler or pilgrim, have reached the 
terminus, the summit of the mountain, that sanctuary 
which I desired and contemplated so far off; and to. 
day I look serenely upon the valleys which extend at 
my feet, and are gradually lost in the shadow. During 



378 Appendix. 

seventeen years I have risen from truth to truth, from 
light to light ; and I have found the place of my repose 
in the religious life, — on its blessed heights which raise 
us above the regions of storms, and where my soul is 
warmed by the rays of the eternal Sun. For me the 
reality is beautiful, and I would dream no more ; all 
my dreams are accomplished, all my desires realized. 
Contented with the present, hoping better of the future, 
I sigh not for the past; and gathering abundantly 
the fruits of autumn I regret not the faded flowers of 
spring. Ah ! when I compare my youth, so brilliant 
and so empty, with my present life, so modest and so 
full, — when I compare what I experienced in the assem- 
blies and gilded drawing-rooms of the world, with 
what I to-day experience in the calm of my poor cell — 
oh, how my soul rises in gratitude to God ; how I 
appreciate my happiness ! When I compare my travels 
through Europe with the blessed journeys which I 
have now to make; when I think that, instead of the 
Hussar's uniform of which I was so proud in my youth, 
I wear the austere robe of the Barnabites; that in- 
stead of assisting at the noisy festivals of the world, 
I take part in the festivals of our Church — and the daily 
banquet of the Eucharist replaces with me the frivolous 
or guilty banquets ; — oh, I repeat that I appreciate 
my happiness ! Then I drank long draughts from the 
cup of pleasure, and I was wretched ; the world called 
me rich, and I found myself poor; they believed me 
free, and I felt myself a slave ; but now that I have 
pronounced the three solemn vows which have nailed 



Appendix, 379 

me to the cross forever ; now that I possess nothing, 
— that I have sworn to renounce all will, all pleasure, 
I have found riches, liberty, and happiness : riches in 
the plenitude of sentiments with which my heart 
overflows, and which elevate and unite me with my 
God ; liberty in the conformity of my will with His ; 
happiness in flight from pleasure in sacrificing the in- 
stincts of nature to the inspirations of grace, and in 
the calm which comes to me from the intimate, firm, 
unshaken conviction of having accomplished my duty. 
"O calm of heart which God alone can give, con- 
viction, peace, and happiness, treasures and joys of the 
soul, I had never known Ye ! 



"O you whom God calls from the world; happy 
chosen souls who awaken in me pious sympathy and 
holy tenderness. Oh, I conjure you, resist not, — obev 
and persevere. Ah ! you will also know these spiritual 
joys ; you will know the gift of God. No doubt there 
are sorrows in the religious life, for there are sacrifices ; 
but it is only through sacrifice that you will be happy. 
Sacrifice is the measure of your love, it is the condition 
of your happiness. And in the world have you not 
also your sufferings ? Yes, and they are more numer- 
ous, more cruel, and very frequently useless ! While 
our sacrifices are counted, — each tear is weighed in the 
balance of divine mercy. 

i "Yes, in the religious life there are sorrows ; but one 
does not sin,— at least he sins less. God is less offended 



380 Appendix. 

there : therefore, there is more happiness. And then 
death, — the thought of death ! Is it not sweet to know 
that when he comes knocking at our door, that it is in 
the arms of God we will receive him?— while worldlings, 
where will he find them ! At the theatre, in the midst 
of a ball, of an orgy, in the act of sin. perhaps. . .This 
thought strengthens me, and I bless Thee, O my God !" 



THE NOVICE UNFAITHFUL TO HER VOCATION. 

When God calls a soul to a more perfect life, He 
certainly does it a special and very great favor, — it is a 
favor which is only granted to the few ; it is very just, 
then, that he should be indignant against those who 
make little account of it. How offended a prince would 
feel if he called one of his subjects to serve him more 
intimately as his favorite and was refused ! And will 
not God resent a similar injury? Ah! He resents it 
but too much ; He threatens with the last misfortune, 
the soul which contradicts his designs : Vce qui contra- 
ct kit jictori suo ! This word Vce (woe,) in holy scrip- 
ture, signified eternal loss. The punishment of such a 
soul begins in this life; it will never, as Job warns 
us, know repose. It will be deprived of the abun- 
dant and efficacious assistance which would have kept 
it in the right path. Therefore its salvation will be 
most difficult. "It will remain part of the body of 
the Church," says a learned theologian, " but like a dis- 
located member which can be used with great difficulty." 



Appendix. 381 

And therefore he concludes that though, absolutely- 
speaking, this unfortunate soul can still be saved, it will 
with much difficulty avail itself of the necessary means 
of salvation. St. Bernard and St. Leo teach the same 
thing. The emperor Maurice having by an edict for- 
bidden his soldiers to become religious, St. Gregory 
wrote to him and declared that it was against law ; for 
it closed Paradise to many Christians who could be 
saved in the religious state and might be lost in the 
world. 

What terrible examples we read of sudden and 
appalling deaths as the punishment of a despised voca- 
tion ! How many unfortunate souls will we not see 
condemned at the Last Day for not having followed 
their vocation ! 

They have been rebellious to the light, the Holy 
Spirit tells us by the mouth of Job, and by a just 
punishment they are deprived of light ; and because 
they have refused to walk in the path to which God 
called them, and blindly follow one of their own 
choosing, they shall follow it to their perdition. In 
Proverbs God expresses himself still more forcibly : 
each word merits to be weighed. I will utter my spirit 
to you : that is, I send you the grace of vocation, but 
you refuse to correspond to it, you despise all my 
coimsels . . . Then I also will laugh in your destruction, 
and will mock when that shall come to you which you 
feared ; when sudden calamity shall fall on you and 
destruction as a tempest be at hand, when tribulation and 
distress shall come upon you, then shall they call on me 



382 Appendix. 

and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning and 
they shall not find me. Yes, when the temptations of 
the world will come upon you like a tempest; in the 
anguish and distress of death you will call upon Him, 
and He will not hear you ; you will seek Him, and you 
will not find Him. . ." Senseless souls," exclaims St. 
Augustine, " you resist the voice of God which calls you; 
you fly from His arms which only seek you for your 
good, but you cannot fly from His justice which will 
pursue you to punish you ! " 

Ah! if regret for having through our own fault lost 
some great good, or voluntarily caused some great evil, 
so pursues us in this life that it becomes an insupportable 
torment, what then will be the suffering of a soul in hell 
whom God by a special favor called to the religious 
life ! For it will be ever present to her mind that by 
obeying God she would have acquired a high place 
in heaven, while now she is condemned to this place 
of torment with no hope of ever leaving it ! 

Here will be the undying worm which will gnaW 
her heart with unceasing remorse. And she will cry: 
Senseless soul that I was ! I could have been a great 
saint. If I had obeyed I would be now in heaven ;' 
and behold, I am lost, — lost for all eternity ! 

At the Last Judgment she will see ranged at her 
Saviour's right hand and crowned as saints those who' 
have been faithful to their vocation, and who, renoun- 
cing the world, retired into the house of God whither . 
she herself was invited ; and for having disobeyed the 
voice of God she will find herself separated from the 



Appendix. 383 

company of the Blessed and cast with the innumerable 
multitude of the reprobates. O what torture will the 
thought of her vocation then be to her ! 

Then, dear daughter of Jesus Christ, you who are 
called by your Father and Master to sanctify yourself 
in this His house, close not your heart to His affection- 
ate appeal. 

Feast of the Purification, 

February 2d, 1879. 



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